Another Station, Another Mile
by Sheppard Studios
Summary: It's a story where Fox joins Star Wolf because he wants money and is stuck in a really bad situation because of it. Read to find out more. I really need to figure out a better summary for this but this will have to do. Like, share, and subscribe. [hiatus]
1. Draining the System (I)

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 **Chapter I — The First Station: Draining the System [PT 1]**

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 **Yanntek — "Rise" {YouTube, Spotify}**

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It was early morning in Dewhurst, a small town of roughly six hundred residents five-hundred miles east of the Continental River, therefore eight-hundred miles away from Armorin, the capital city of Papetoon. And with the early morning hours of the small rural town came the inevitable dust storms blowing in from the Easton Mountains that reduced visibility to mere feet, consequently bringing the town itself into a standstill. Papetoonian dust storms were nasty, vicious storms, and nobody would be caught out there in the middle of it for fear that if the unhealthy air didn't asphyxiate you within moments of stepping outside, the debris being whirled around like a twister would definitely pelt you to a slow, excruciatingly painful death.

Gruesome, yes, but, luckily, it was the spring season of the arid, desert planet, so with the increase of temperature as well as the consequential increased humidity, the dust storms didn't last more than an hour or two. And, due to the strange, yet convenient daylight cycle of the planet, the dust storms would be long gone before the first rounds of delivery trucks started combing over the grid-like streets of the small rural township to deliver the daily paper to the patrons that supported the local printer's shop. Everyone was still safe and asleep in their homes while the storms ravaged the outside. It was such a common occurrence that people became used to the high winds, pluming sand, and dangerously low breathing ability outside and just ignored the storms all together.

Everyone except for thirty-two year old retired mercenary pilot Fox McCloud. Even being that he was in his hometown, in the same house that he had spent well over half of his childhood in before he and his family moved to Corneria, he still couldn't ignore the dust storms. He was never able to eliminate the howling wind and the excruciatingly annoying sound of the fine particles of sand relentlessly slamming against the resilient siding of his home, even when the homes themselves were built to withstand that kind of abuse. The sound akin to an unrelenting rainstorm complete with high winds and occasional rumbles of thunder was the one thing—amongst other things—that he couldn't be paid to hear more of any more than he already did in his life.

Lying in nothing but his fur, soaking in the divine comfort of his bed, Fox absentmindedly stared out the crack in his curtains to see the dark blue, almost black skies obscured by the thick, swirling dust. He flipped onto his side to get a better view with his bushy tail strategically flipped over his waist. From his vantage point, he saw the heavy curtains blocking almost all of the window, along with his nightstand that housed a very small picture of his family, taken about five years ago.

Maybe he should give them a call. It has been way too long since he's called them.

Then again, it might not be in his best interest. His dad would probably chide him for disbanding the mercenary team he had spent so much time and money building from the ground up for no noteworthy reason; at least to James that is. His mother would probably get in that same boat, maybe going as far as giving him a lecture on why disbanding the team was a bad idea in the long run. Either way, he couldn't win.

As the winds picked up in volume and intensity, as well as the annoying sound of the particles of coarse sand pelting his window, Fox groaned and flipped his legs over his bedside. After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, as well as combing his long, unkempt mohawk back into place, he stood up, grabbed his robe hanging on the doorknob of his closet, slipped his arms through the sleeves and tightened the strap around his waist, and finally punched the snooze button on his alarm clock over an hour before it was supposed to go off. With that, he dragged his heels and clicked his hind claws against the hardwood floors as he slipped out of his bedroom.

With the interior of his home still relatively dark due to the Lylatian sun still resting under the horizon, Fox gently felt his way through the narrow hallway in order to get to the living room residing at the opposite end. As he flicked the light switch at the very end of the hallway, a lamp nestled in the far corner of his living room came to life, bathing the small room in a deep, orangey-yellow glow as if a large candle had been lit. With that, he could finally see the two small, worn couches arranged in an L shape against the back and left side walls overlooking a glass coffee table, as well as the bookshelf pressed against the wall joining up with the hallway. A small TV set hung from the wall opposite of the closest couch, and just in front of that TV—from where the vulpine stood—sat the front door, with a rack of worn coats in front of it. Directly opposite of that door was the entryway to the kitchen that utilized the wall the nearest couch was pressed against to house a countertop and many sets of drawers and cabinets.

Groggily, Fox slipped through the arched entryway and immediately slid up to his coffee maker—already prepped the night before. With a touch of a button, the coffee maker groaned in activation and set to work in brewing Fox's morning wake-up drink. While that was working, Fox moved over to the end of the countertop where his smartphone and tablet were charging. He unplugged both, each one letting out a quiet chime in recognition that they were no longer charging, and slowly trotted over to his kitchen table and set both down. Due to his phone being unplugged just moments prior, his screen was illuminated when he set it down—his lock screen image blurred and obscured with a notification saying he had four unread messages.

Sighing, he sank down into one of the kitchen chairs and held the device in his paw, unlocking it and taking a look at the messages. The first one was a message from an unknown address, which he ignored until later. Funny enough, two of the other messages were junk messages that he immediately deleted, which left him with one unread message… from his mother. With a small, yet forced grin plastered on his muzzle, he opened the message and read the text that popped up on his screen.

 _Fox, did you hear what some of your friends did? I think it was Falco, Miyu, Fara, and a few others that formed their own mercenary team. Weren't they with Star Fox before you decided to disband it? Well, it looks like they're still having fun and making a name for themselves while you're enjoying your retirement. If anything, at least give them a call and with them luck or something. They're your friends; you should at least try to keep in contact with them. You're lucky I still send_ _you_ _messages._

 _Oh, don't forget: your father's birthday is next week. I'd really appreciate it if you'd take some time to visit. If not, just send a card, or a message, or something to let us know that you're actually still alive. Let us know as soon as you can, or as soon as you feel like it, as the case may be._

Halfway through the message, Fox's smile faded away into a particularly nasty and disapproving scowl, and as soon as he was done he unceremoniously set his phone back down on the kitchen table, completely forgetting about the message he had yet to read. After another sigh, he opened up his tablet, immediately popping up a home screen filled with the latest sports scores and a few news headlines. Just as he expected from his mother's message, the top news story involved his former teammates. The picture displayed on the screen pictured Falco, Slippy, Miyu, Fay, Fara, and two other characters he had never seen before, while the headline above the picture was enough to put a sour taste in the vulpine's mouth.

 **Ex Star Fox ace pilot Falco Lombardi and company form 'replacement' Star Fox PMC — "Star Falcon" takes to the skies.**

Fox didn't even bother reading the rest of the article. In fact, he had a hunch about what was depicted in the article, ranging from Falco boasting about his superior skills and Miyu cracking a joke like she would do given the chance, so he just closed up his tablet without looking at anything else. Conveniently, his coffee pot buzzed as soon as he did so, signaling that his morning cup of joe was ready. After pouring himself a mug of the blazing hot liquid, he wandered over into the living room and stared out of the front window.

Absentmindedly sipping his coffee, Fox became entranced with the outside sunrise. It had been a while since he caught the exact moment of the dust storm settling due to the rising Lylatian sun over the horizon. By some weather phenomenon that had yet to be explained coherently and completely, the dust storms at night would only be calmed with the presence of sunlight. As soon as the smallest ray of sunlight peeked over the horizon, the raging storms of sand and dust would slowly simmer down into faint gusts of wind, eventually settling completely as soon as the environment started to heat up and lighten up.

Fox was always intrigued with this interesting weather patterns, yet he didn't have an adequate knowledge of what kind of science was behind that division of meteorology, so he just let the sights do the talking for him. He wanted to explain the means of why these dust storms behaved in the way they did, but at the same time it would ruin the intrigue for him. He admired its enigmatic presence because it allowed him to separate his mind from the real world for a few minutes to calm his nerves and to soothe his muscles.

He watched as the sun slowly eased up from the horizon line, gradually increasing the surface temperatures as well as lightening up the otherwise dark and cold desert planet, not realizing that he had been standing there, sipping his coffee for over half an hour. He felt more alert now that his coffee was nothing more than a few drops in the bottom of his mug, but, once again, he let his mind wander off for too long that he didn't even realize it. Shaking himself into the present time, he traveled back into the kitchen, set his mug by the half-full coffee pot to be refilled later, then trudged over to the heavy door separating the kitchen from the garage attached to his home. Before stepping out, he slipped his sandals over his hind paws and tightened the robe around his waist.

In his two car garage sat a single heavily armored SUV, recycled from ground missions in the old Star Fox days. Albeit unpractical with its highly resistant material and bulletproof glass, its fuel economy was shockingly high, and Fox loved its handling and its admittedly intimidating size. As he punched the button next to the door, causing the large garage door to slowly retract into the ceiling, the early morning sun glinted off of the stainless steel grill and the matte black finish of his SUV, showcasing its unblemished and clean appearance. However, the vulpine ignored it for now, and grabbed the small broom leaning up against the wall just underneath the garage door mechanism.

Slowly, but efficiently, Fox used that broom to wipe off the layer of orangey-brown dust that covered his driveway. To him, it was no different than shoveling snow on Corneria, but he did think that the layer of sand was an easier task to accomplish for multiple reasons. For one, it was much lighter than the heavy snow that could accumulate, and for two he didn't have to bundle up to clean up the sand. In fact, if it wasn't for the robe he was wearing, he could do it with nothing at all. The only thing he hated about dusting off his driveway was the annoying scraping sound of the bristles on his broom being forcefully wiped against the cement. The grainy sound was enough to drive him nuts within minutes, but over the years he slowly started getting used to the sound, even if it was still a nuisance to his ears.

He finally got all the way down to the base of his driveway, where the cement sloped down into a curb the street his home resided on linked up with. To his right, a few more houses with more than an adequate amount of space between them consumed with the desolate orange sand continued down the street until another street intersected it, while to his left the same street his house sat on extended without bound, sometimes curving to accommodate for the sloping terrain and sheer cliff sides that the ground degraded into. Most of the houses varied enough to distinguish one's home just by the outside appearance, and Fox's home fell under that category—being that his home was the only one on the street that had a deep cream colored siding that was only a few shades lighter than the sand covering the ground. A few decorative spots of cacti grew in the wedge of space stemming from the path to his front door and his driveway, and his mailbox—a weather beaten metal box with his last name and a set of four digits—sat on the far edge of his driveway.

After Fox momentarily leaned his broom against the box, he opened the front flap and pulled out its contents. A few articles filled the box, mainly his newspaper and junk advertisements, as well as a bill for his electricity, but other than that it had nothing of importance. He shut the mailbox, stuffed his bill in with his newspaper and stuck it underneath his arm, and grabbed his broom, but as soon as he started to walk away he heard the faint roar of a motorcycle. With his ears pointed upward, he focused in on the engine's rumbling that, after a bit of straining to hear, was stemming from the left side of the street in the cover of the cliffs.

Within moments, a singular headlight became visible around the terrain of the sharp cliffs towards the very end of the street. The light progressively became brighter and more defined as the motorcycle approached, and for a while there Fox assumed the rider would just harmlessly drive by. However, as the biker got within three houses of Fox, the engine cut out, leaving the rider to gradually coast up to the vulpine.

It became apparent to Fox that the rider was female judging by the composition of her frame and the way her body seemed to hug her bike. Most of her frame was covered in a thick jet-black suit resembling a jump suit, with a few decals of well-known racing companies stitched onto the chest and shoulders. A matching bike helmet adorned her head aside from her long, narrow muzzle that protruded from the aforementioned headgear. A combination of light gray, tan, and brown fur covered her protruding muzzle and long, bushy tail that jutted out from her waist. With her short, slender frame, and the color of her fur, the biker was obviously a coyote underneath all of her protective gear.

The motorcyclist slowly crawled to a stop just at the base of his driveway, and as soon as she came to a complete stop she flipped her visor upward, revealing a set of deep, sapphire blue eyes that popped with her dull, sand-like textured fur. She immediately smiled and kicked her kickstand up to balance her bike, allowing her to stand up completely. Now, Fox wasn't tall by any stretch of the word, probably standing at a solid five foot eight, but she was easily two or three inches shorter. Fox couldn't help but let his eyes wander; luckily the coyote was too preoccupied with her emotions to even notice.

"Oh my gosh!" the female yipped, jumping on her toes and holding her arms to her chest with her paws balled in overwhelming excitement. "You're Fox McCloud! _THE_ Fox McCloud!"

Fox let a small grin surface at the coyote's bubbliness and excitement. "That's me," he responded with an unconscious tone of overbearing pride.

The coyote squealed and removed her black motorbike helmet, revealing an explosion of vibrant, albeit unnaturally toned light blonde hair that slightly curled from its initial straight style as it flowed down all the way to her shoulder blades. After setting her helmet on the seat, she ran a paw from the very leftmost side of her hair where the blonde coloring faded into her natural light brown color, flipping it out of her eyes and over to the right side of her face as it flowed down in front of her triangular ear. After wasting a few seconds to make sure that her appearance was presentable, she took a few steps forward and forcefully grabbed the vulpine's available paw and gave it a vigorous shake with both of her own.

"I'm Natalia Fayne," the coyote said giddily, releasing her vice grip on the vulpine's paw. "I'm, like, your number one fan!"

"Oh," Fox almost recoiled, admittedly feeling incredibly awkward standing in front of a young fan in nothing but his robe. "Well, it's nice to meet you."

"You're telling me?!" Natalia giggled, eyes wide in excitement as her voice seemed to jitter in overwhelming happiness. "I'm finally talking with my idol! You were definitely my idol when you were still flying. Most girls like those generic boy bands or stuff like that, but not me! Like, ten years ago or so when I was still in primary school, my room was filled with everything Star Fox! My favorite thing was a replica nylon jacket that I wore _everywhere_! It was so nice and comfy! And—get this—they even had a video game and everything!"

Fox chuckled sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh, am I making you uncomfortable?" she asked, folding her ears back. "You did the thing where you scratch your neck, so you must be uncomfortable. I'm so sorry, I'm just… really excited that I'm finally talking with my hero. I'm sorry if I'm weirding you out…"

"It's okay," Fox assured. "Believe me, you're _tame_ compared to other fans of mine years back."

"That makes me feel better," Natalia grinned nervously, grabbing at her wrist. "So, what are you doing here of all places? I thought you were still flying."

"I disbanded the team and retired," he replied frankly. "But my old teammates just formed a replacement team in my absence, so it's not all bad."

"Aww, that's a bummer," she said, seemingly deflating like a punctured balloon. "You were my favorite mercenary."

"I can tell," Fox chuckled, making the coyote smile. "So, I was your idol, eh?"

"Yeah!" Natalia yipped, her voice becoming energetic again. "I first heard of you when I was twelve, and ten years later I still haven't forgotten you. It's hard to forget your amazing heroics. You were the best pilot ever! Even better than Falco!"

Fox grinned, blushing slightly at the praise. "Oh, thanks."

"Oh, can I get your autograph?" she asked, folding her paws together. "Please?"

"Sure," the vulpine said warmly, adjusting the newspaper under his arm.

Natalia squealed in delight and skipped back over to her motorcycle. She lifted the seat, exposing a secret compartment with a black backpack and a yellow padded envelope. Without wasting any time, she grabbed the envelope and shut the seat compartment, and immediately removed a magazine from the envelope and gingerly outstretched it to the vulpine.

"It's an old edition of the Mercenary Contractors magazine that featured your team on the cover," she explained. "It's my favorite edition because it goes super in-depth into Star Fox, from you guys' equipment to all of your previous jobs, even before you took over."

"I remember this," Fox said with subtle awe, gently flipping through the pages. "This was back in the good 'ol days where mercenary teams actually made a living in the world. I think I remember posing for that photo shoot too, and answering all the questions they threw at me."

"A lot of people thought that you and your team had metal prosthetics with how your boots looked in this picture," Natalia commented, covering her muzzle to stifle a giggle.

"I've honestly lost count of how many people have asked to see my legs because of that," Fox mumbled, taking the black marker the coyote gave him.

"Well, you obviously don't," she remarked, her eyes wandering down to Fox's hind paws. "I hope I didn't wake you up with my motorcycle. I've tried to calm the noise down, but it's still really loud."

"Nah, just the dust storms keeping me up," Fox corrected. "And it's really not a big deal you caught me like this. Could be a lot worse."

"True," she about laughed, watching as Fox uncapped the marker. Accompanying his large, swooping signature that looked about as elegant as his flying skill, Fox wrote: [ _To my number one fan, Natalia; keep on flying. All the best, —Fox McCloud_ ]

As soon as the coyote saw the elegant signature written just above his picture on the magazine, she squealed again and immediately tucked the magazine into her envelope so that it wouldn't get ruined. She then placed the envelope back into the compartment underneath her seat, but also removed the backpack that sat in there as well.

"Oh, I wanna show you something too," she said, unzipping one of the pouches and rummaging around inside of it. She finally pulled out a small replica model of his custom-made blaster he used on ground operations. Down to every little minute detail, the replica looked identical to his own weapon despite being half the size.

"Whoa," Fox gasped in visible awe. "This looks exactly like mine."

"I made it in my engineering class in college," she explained, holding out the replica to Fox. "Yeah, it actually works too."

"Wow," he grinned, looking over every little inch of the weapon before handing it back. "That's impressive."

"Thanks," Natalia giggled, blushing noticeably as her hips and tail started to sway. "I keep it on me just in case something happens. I almost got attacked once, but this huge guy saved me, and ever since then I've been working with him. I'm his main engineer."

"Nice," Fox said with encouragement. "Who do you work for?"

"Oh, a private mercenary company, like you did," she said happily.

"Really?" the vulpine asked with a hint of worry. "How is it?"

"It's so much fun!" the coyote nearly yipped, starting to bounce on her feet again. "Did I ever show you how this works?"

Caught off-guard with the sudden topic change, Fox stuttered, "Oh, well, does it, uh, work like mine?"

"Somewhat," she replied, beginning to fiddle with the weapon. "It's got the normal laser setting, but it's also got a stun option that I created and spliced into it. See, you just flip this dial here, and then you can do this."

Before Fox had time to even process his next move, Natalia turned the weapon at him and fired, hitting him in the stomach with the stun round. In one less-than-graceful motion, Fox fell sideways onto his driveway, involuntarily hitting his skull against the cement while his newspaper and other mail scattered from his grasp. Natalia covered her muzzle with both of her paws—still with her weapon tightly clasped in her right paw—and stared at Fox's unconscious and unmoving frame for a few seconds, but once she was sure that he was completely out, she abandoned her shocked expression and started snickering to herself.

After the coyote stuffed her weapon back into her bag and flipped it onto her shoulders, she reached into one of her pockets on her black jump suit and pulled out her phone. While staring at Fox's unmoving frame, she dialed in a few numbers and instantly held it up to her face. As soon as the dial tone faded away, she didn't bother waiting for the person on the other line to initiate the conversation and immediately began speaking.

"Hey, it's me. McCloud's down for the count. Worked like a charm. He'll be out for an hour at most, so hurry up and get here."

"We're only a block away," a gruff, male voice replied. "Good work, Fayne."

"Would you mind hurrying up, Wolf?" Natalia suggested, her eyes wandering to a particular spot on the vulpine. "Fox is only in his robe, and it kinda untied when he fell over."

"Hey, just be happy your little explosion of fan-girl worked," Wolf's voice grunted. "Oh, and please try to cover that up before we get here."

"Afraid of getting turned on by it?" Natalia snickered. In reply, she got the empty tone of a terminated phone call, causing her to explode into resounding laughter as she kicked part of the vulpine's robe over his privates. Seconds later, another roar of a motorcycle became audible to her ears, and sure enough, off to the right of Fox's house where the intersection was, the coyote saw a single motorbike followed by a pure white SUV spin around the corner and drive up to Fox's driveway.

The person on the motorbike—the unmistakable reptilian frame of Leon Powalski—immediately hopped off and removed his helmet. Upon seeing Fox lying flat, he snickered and approached Natalia.

"Good," he sneered, his eyes wandering from her to Fox with such speed that you couldn't blink or else you'd miss what he was looking at. "Maybe I underestimated your talent. I didn't think you could pull it off."

"Told ya to never doubt me," Natalia remarked confidently, followed by a friendly elbow to the ribcage of the chameleon. As Leon guided his bike up the curb and around Fox's body, the doors to the white SUV opened almost in perfect unison, the sound of the unlatching doors and faint chatter slipping out of the truck filling the coyote's ears.

The first to get out was the person in the back seat behind the driver; a toned, slim blue jay decked out in a black tactical vest overtop his snow white shirt and a pair of cargo khaki pants tucked into his black boots. A small headset encompassed the back of his head, forming around his black, white, and cobalt blue feathers like it was part of his skull. A small microphone jutted out from the left side of his headset and jutted off of the avian's long, pointed beak. He turned his green eyes to the coyote, then to Fox's unconscious frame, then let a smirk crease his beak as he nodded his head.

After the blue jay nodded, the person sitting behind the passenger's seat—a tall and slender light copper husky—poked her head above the clearing of the truck's front end and smiled. Shortly after, she stood in front of the hood, using the faintly reflective properties of the paint job to paw her explosion of cinnamon colored locks into place. Even with it looking as good as it did, the husky's voluminous hair could only be compared to a volcanic eruption off the top of her head that luxuriously flowed down her shoulders all the way past the base of her tail in length. With the sun looming close to the horizon, the sunlight hit her hair in a way that gave it the illusion that it was on fire. Covering her hourglass frame was a pale pink tank top that only covered the area of her cleavage and about a half an inch below it, with a white sleeveless vest overtop it—allowing her to show off her white and light brown arms. Two small pistols were holstered to her belt, which aided in holding up a pair of skimpy, black jean shorts that only covered about a third of her upper legs. Overall, the husky took advantage of her looks and flaunted them very well, considering how Leon stopped what he was doing to stare.

The person in the passenger's seat was the next to exit the confinements of the SUV; a hulking mass of white and light gray fur in the form of a malamute becoming visible in the dull early morning light. The malamute apparently was built like a tank, with hulking, yet toned muscles covering almost every part of his six foot seven frame. A nasty scar starting just below the base of his hairline—where a head of relatively long, black hair erratically scattered between his tall, pointed ears—traveled down across his forehead and right steel gray eye, ending at the base of his jawline. Wearing nothing but a sleeveless black shirt and a set of similarly colored cargo pants, the canine's intimidating size was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine, even without the large automatic rifle strapped to his back and the hilt of an energy beam sword strapped to his leftmost belt loop.

Finally, the driver lifted himself out of the SUV, and it was none other than the infamous Wolf O'Donnell—eye patch and all. As of recently he abandoned his spoked shoulder pads and went for something more conventional, like his current getup of an insulated jacket overtop a faded orange t-shirt, tied together with a pair of black combat pants and his usual boots. After shutting the door, he turned to the blue jay and poked at the back of the truck.

"Kajær, the gear," he said sternly, prompting the avian to nod in acknowledgement, then Wolf watched as he trotted around the truck and opened the cargo door. As he lifted heavy looking bags out of the back, Wolf slowly walked up to the coyote and gently ran his paw over her head, smiling the entire time.

"Good job," he said, allowing the coyote to throw her hair back into place. "Runt never saw it coming, did he?"

"Not in the slightest," Natalia cooed back, slyly running her cheek across the tuft of fur poking out from Wolf's shirt as she approached her motorcycle parked just in front of the SUV. "So, now what?"

"First off, Dahlstrom needs to drag Fox inside," Wolf stated, to which the massive malamute helping the avian take the bags of equipment out of the back of the truck groaned in response.

"Sheila needs to get him," the malamute argued in a deadpanned, thick Fichinian ***** accent, gently setting a few of the heavy bags on the curb next to the driveway. "I'm helping Adam get the gear inside."

"I can't do all of this on my own," the blue jay, Adam, agreed, grunting as he picked up a heavy duffel. "I need Patrik's help to get all of this inside."

Wolf let a growl form in the back of his throat. "Fine. She, I need you to grab Fox and take him inside."

Sheila huffed impatiently, but ended up coming off more adorable than frustrated. "Aww, Wolf, come on! Do I really have to?"

"Yes," Wolf replied all too quickly, disregarding the pleading stare the husky was giving him. "We still need him."

The light copper husky tried to glare at the lupine behind his back, but it faded almost instantly as she let a sigh through her nostrils. She unenthusiastically crouched down and wedged her paws underneath Fox's back, and—with a bit of difficulty, apparent from her grunts and groans—managed to pry Fox off of the ground and drape him over her shoulder. Natalia was gracious enough to help the husky back up to a standing position after she successfully had Fox in an improvised fireman's carry, but after that she was on her own, forced to lug his unconscious body across the driveway, through the garage, and into his house after the coyote opened the door for her.

Huffing in discomfort, she did her best to gently set Fox down on one of the living room couches, which worked for the most part. Still completely unconscious, Fox limply laid on his back as Sheila pulled his legs back up on the couch and draped his robe back over his waist. As soon as she backed away, Leon poked in and forced Fox's arms behind his back and tied them together with a thick zip-tie, and then did the same with his ankles.

"Hey, hey, not so tight," Sheila whined when Leon tightened the ties as tight as Fox's limbs would let them.

"I like it when my prey can't get away," Leon sneered to himself, looking over his handiwork with a smug smile.

Sheila shook her head and looked in the kitchen just in time to see Adam and Patrik drop a total of five large duffel bags next to Fox's kitchen table. Adam immediately took a seat and gasped for breath, panting from exertion, while Patrik just looked at the pile of bags and let a burst of air out of his nose.

"Kajær," the malamute grunted, picking one of the bags out of the pile and unceremoniously set it on the table in front of the blue jay.

"Careful!" Adam squawked, immediately grabbing at the bag. "This equipment is fragile."

"Then I'd recommend you get everything set up," Patrik suggested, his voice refusing to venture from an uninterested, blank tone. He set his large rifle on the countertop next to the coffee pot, then poked his head out of the garage to see Wolf backing the white SUV into the garage, with Natalia guiding the two motorcycles into the small space in between both heavy vehicles now residing in the garage. As soon as everything was secure, Patrik nodded and punched the button to let the garage door slowly descend to cover up their vehicles.

"And we are in the clear," Natalia said, pumping her balled paw in the air as a celebration.

"Not yet," Wolf said, shutting the door to his truck. He walked up to the coyote and wrapped an arm around her much shorter frame as a broken hug of sorts before continuing, "They could still locate us if Kajær doesn't set up our firewall right."

Natalia nodded, slipping inside the kitchen before Wolf pulled the door shut. The lupine then immediately walked up to the blue jay, who already had a computer and two separate hard drives set up on the kitchen table. Seeing that Adam was clearly occupied in setting up his rig, he walked right past him and approached Leon, who was overlooking the avian's progress.

"So we've got our hideout," Leon remarked.

"Yep," Wolf agreed.

"And our gear and crew."

"Yep."

"What about him?" Leon asked, pointing to Fox, still unconscious on the couch with Sheila tending to the wound on his head.

"He'll be useful," Wolf said confidently, folding his arms.

"How?" the chameleon questioned. "You do know he's Fox McCloud, right?"

"No shit," Wolf nearly snorted. "I'm saying he can be useful to this operation. His data can get us into the mainframe."

Awkwardly, Adam raised a wing and turned around in his seat. "Well, technically I can get in without an authorized personnel's ID—"

"You'd trip the security system if you did," Wolf interrupted. "We're trying to draw as little attention as we can."

"And using Fox's ID will bypass all of that security," Patrik remarked, not losing that deadpan tone throughout his words. "Makes our job easier, saves time, and is safer than trying to break into their network from scratch."

"But it's still a risk getting into a secure government database," Adam added, pulling out a stack of hard drives from one of the bags and setting it onto the table behind his computer. "Even if we can get through, sapping their data will get us noticed."

"Which is why we bail as soon as we get the info we need," Wolf responded, glancing over his shoulder at Fox. "But first, we need to wait for him to wake up."

"Not to be a killjoy," Patrik's perpetually blank voice spoke up. "But what use does he have to us? If anything, he'll get in the way."

"You might think that, but that's actually not the case," the lupine answered him surely. "He's got skill. And I think I can speak for him by saying that he retried and disbanded his team too soon. We could use someone like him."

Leon scoffed from beside him. " _Him_? He'll never agree."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Sheila broke into the conversation, passing by the team while holding a bloodied rag. "Wolf's quite the persuader."

"Still doesn't change the fact that Fox has been fighting him for a decade," Leon muttered, watching the husky drop the rag into the kitchen sink.

"We were paid to fight each other," Wolf corrected him, slowly approaching the blue jay while keeping his stare on the chameleon. "Fox knows that I was paid to fight him. There wasn't anything personal there."

"So you're thinking that you can try to push that decade of hostility under the rug to get Fox on our side," Patrik commented, sitting in the chair next to Adam. "It's a good plan, but it's just a matter of making it work."

"Don't worry about that," Wolf assured. "Soon as he wakes up, I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

"And in the meantime we can get our rig set up for the extraction," Adam said unfocusedly, wiring his drives to his computer. "We're gonna need extra power to power these drives so that we can get the entire system."

"I'm gonna go jam the breakers so they don't trip while we do this," Patrik announced, standing up and walking towards the hallway.

"Whoa, that's not a huge fire hazard?" Wolf questioned, watching as the malamute harmlessly passed by into the hallway.

"Of course it is; this whole shoebox could go up as soon as I do it."

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[҉]

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 ***Fichinian — Finnish**

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 **A/N: Hello all, and welcome to the madness that ensues when both Sheppard and Callie are without power due to a nasty ice storm earlier in the week. Well, no power means no internet, and when that happens, bad things are bound to happen. So in a matter of a few days, Callie and I constructed the immediate framework to this fic (and by that I mean the first three or four chapters), but, as our issue seems to be, updates may be few and far between due to our respective work loads and lives. However, that won't deter us. We'll do what we can, when we can, and regardless of our intervals, I hope you fellas enjoy them nonetheless.**

 **This is the first part to the opening chapter, so I would expect questions, but don't worry, they're all answered in due time. I feel like I need to make that statement because if I don't, I seem to lose my viewership return for the next chapter for some odd reason. There is a method to my madness, I swear.**

 **Also, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Veria. That's just in a bit of a rut right now. I'll try to churn out another chapter soon, I promise.**

 **Anyway, again, hope you guys enjoyed, and as always, reviews are welcome and encouraged.**

 **~Sheppard**


	2. Draining the System (II)

[҉]

 **Chapter II — Draining the System [PT 2]**

[҉]

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 **London Elektricity — "The Plan That Cannot Fail" {YouTube, Spotify}**

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[҉]

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Comparing the difficulty for Fox to open his eyes after lying unconscious for over two hours to trying to push a fully equipped tank up a steep incline would not be a bad comparison. His eyes felt like two heavy hatches preventing water from gushing into a sewer spillway with how they refused to obey his mental commands to open. However, unlike his eyes, his ears were awake and attentive, and it wasn't long before he started picking up sound. Yet, due to the burning sensation he discovered on the side of his face, his hearing was slightly numbed. Trying to shove the searing pain in the back of his mind, his ears twisted, swiveled, and pointed in the direction of the voices he was hearing.

"Oh, believe me, I wanted to bring him along," a voice he could have sworn he had heard before spoke up, only vaguely distinguishable with the distance he had. "He's great with management and all, but I don't think he would have been a good addition."

"What do you mean?" a female voice asked.

"His skills were great, but his personality would have been too conflicting. Would've slowed us down. You know he wanted to invest until he saw Kajær?"

A faint, sarcastic sounding laugh replied, followed by a different voice saying, "Wait, what?"

The first voice sighed. "Don't be offended, but when he saw you for the first time, he thought you were Cornerian."

"Why would you think I would be offended by that? He's Cornerian, no?"

"Yeah, but you're not. You're from Katina."

"So? Actually… the very fact that you think this might be offensive to me, _is_ offensive. You're the one being racist."

"No," the first voice argued, starting to become inpatient. "Look, I'm not the one that called you a Cornerian. I'm bending over backwards to not be racist."

"Okay, well, what did he say when you told him I wasn't Cornerian?"

"I didn't."

"Why not?"

"Because I wanted him to invest so that we would be able to upgrade the tech without dipping into our fallback."

An awkward pause followed, finally broken by the second voice saying, "I… genuinely don't know how to respond to that."

"Fine," the first voice abruptly growled. "Just get back to work. I'm gonna check on the runt."

The footsteps creaking the wooden floor started to become louder until Fox thought he was going to step on him. Apparently the person noticed Fox's ears swiveling as he approached, because as soon as the footsteps stopped he felt a meaty paw clamp down on his muzzle. Fox's eyes immediately snapped open, only for his heart to practically stop as he saw Wolf's frame surrounded by the sunlight seeping in through the window behind him, giving him the illusion that he was just a silhouette with how vague his features were distinguished.

Fox tried to cry out, but Wolf kept his vice grip on his muzzle that prevented him from speaking out. The next thing he tried to do was fight back, but quickly realized that he was bound tight, unable to move, and only able to squirm like a helpless victim. Gloating over his capture, Wolf snickered and shot Fox a sinister smirk.

"Long time, no see, eh pup?" the lupine sneered, loosening his hold around Fox's jaw enough to let the vulpine speak through his teeth.

"What are you doing here?" Fox snapped.

"Aww, I missed you too," Wolf taunted, playfully shaking Fox's muzzle.

"I mean it!" Fox yipped. "I thought we were on equal terms!"

"Hey, hey, hey, no need to be snippy," Wolf chuckled. "I'll talk if you promise me something."

"Sure, I'll promise not to cave your skull in when you untie me," Fox retorted.

"I need you to give me your word," Wolf growled back. "I gave you mine after you took out Andross; I.E: my only source of income prior to my new contractor, meaning that I'd stop getting on your tail as long as I wasn't being paid to do it. Hell, your PMC is nothing but a memory now, so…"

"Fine," Fox grunted. "I'll give you my word. But on what? What's this about?"

"It's about our new contractor," Wolf explained. "My team and I were hired to do a multi-step deal, with a promise of a massive payout should we succeed. Believe me, runt, I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to, but those three commas under the payout margin of our contract are quite an influential piece of info."

"Three?" Fox echoed in disbelief. "Your contractor promised you over a billion credits for this? Who?"

"According to our signed contract, I'm not allowed to give away our contractor's name and information to personnel outside of the Star Wolf PMC team," Wolf responded. "But would you like to change that?"

Fox shot him a quizzical look.

"Don't look at me like that," Wolf spat. "You heard me."

"Wait, what are you saying?"

Wolf growled impatiently. "I'm offering you a job, McCloud."

Fox scoffed almost instantly. "You really think I'm gonna join your sorry excuse for a mercenary team? Even after you've given little to no information to convince me otherwise?"

"Well, considering that we have over a billion credits coming our way once we complete this job, I don't see why you'd turn this down," Wolf said confidently, crossing his arms. "You can't tell me that you're not as greedy as I am."

"I'm not," Fox countered, sounding more like a little kit than a thirty-two year old vulpine.

"Tell that to the PMC you folded up because it was costing you more than it was making," Wolf responded. "Face it, McCloud, you had a damn good team, with damn good equipment and a damn good reputation. You had it all, but boxed it up because you couldn't be patient enough to wait for a new job. If _I_ was like that, you'd've been fighting a different team during the war with Andross."

"So what? Even if we were getting steady jobs with steady income, we would've exhausted our savings in ten years with repaying the massive loan we had and constantly paying our suppliers."

"We would have done the same thing," Wolf told him, sticking his paws into his jacket pockets. "Before our new contractor came aboard and paid us a portion of the promised amount up-front to get us back on our feet, we'd have been completely out in two months. With that up-front, we got our equipment up to date, we hired some new faces to make sure that the terms to our end of the contract were met, and even at that we have enough to get us by for another five years, maybe more if we're efficient. You see what I'm getting at, pup? You caved too soon, and now you're missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime."

Fox shook his head slowly. "And what is your job? Black market trading? Assassinations?"

Wolf chuckled with mock sincerity. "I'm a changed guy, McCloud. I realized that getting into the darker side of merc work doesn't pay as much as getting into diplomatic merc work. You want to know what our job is and who had the balls to call us for it? Senator Victor Muzzin."

Fox's jaw unhinged, fell off of the couch, and then clattered to the floor. " _THE_ Senator Muzzin?"

"Senator of Macbeth, _and_ a candidate for the upcoming Homeland Coalition election," Wolf elaborated. "He's got ambitious plans, and coming from me, they're damn good. Yet, he's almost dead last in the campaign because of his plans, and the election is quickly approaching."

Fox's eyebrow rose. "What did he go crawling to you for?"

"He's providing us with those big numbers because he wants us to help him," the lupine smirked. "I don't blame him. With his plans, it'd be hard to get behind him and support him right off the bat. There's a bit of sacrifice at first, but what's a big plan that will change and evolve us as a technological race without a bit of sacrifice? That's what he needs is the support, but nobody will give it to him. Not unless we _make_ people give it to him."

"How do you think that's better than the darker side of merc work?" Fox about snapped. "That's incredibly illegal, _and_ cheap! How do you think this is a good idea?"

"Benefits, McCloud," Wolf grunted. "Three commas in rewards will go a long way. Before you say that my team and I won't be getting anywhere with the bounty over our heads, Muzzin promised that if we can get him to the Prime Minister seat, he'll personally pardon us and clear us to active legal mercenary work. So, that huge blemish of assisting Andross, and all of the other things we've been accused of, will be nothing but a faded memory. Pretty soon you'll see Star Wolf as the top PMC in Lylat."

Fox paused for a few seconds before contorting his muzzle in a strange, disgusted expression. "You're insane."

"Who says I wasn't?" Wolf chuckled, standing up off the couch. "Now, here's where I need you, as strange as it sounds. You're still registered with the CDF, right?"

Slowly, Fox answered, "Yeah," with an overwhelmingly apparent tone of hesitance and caution. "Why?"

"We need your CDF registry information to bypass the security bullshit in the CDF servers," he answered. "This way we can avoid getting caught right away by a stupid little security bug and go straight into the mainframe."

"Wait, whoa, whoa, what?" Fox stuttered, gently sitting himself up to relieve the pressure he was inadvertently putting on his arms tied behind his back. "You're hacking into the mainframe?"

"Nobody says _hack_ anymore, runt," Wolf said with such a deadpan tone that Fox wondered if he was being serious or not. "We're simply taking notes of the intel locked up, and taking what we can to ensure that my team and I do a stellar job, as Muzzin requested we do."

"Intel of what?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Wolf about scoffed. "Muzzin wants to win, and there is a lot of things stopping him from doing it. His competition, the voting population, and—believe it or not—other mercenaries. We're just taking care of everything he needs to launch a campaign that will make the other runners look like commoners."

"You can't be serious," Fox blurted out.

"As a heart attack," Wolf grunted, taking the cheesiest retort to his statement out of the book. "Think about it, runt. Fortune beyond your wildest dreams. Remaking a name for yourself. Getting back into the profession you were born for. I may sound like a motivational speaker right now, but you can't tell me that doesn't sound good."

"May sound good, just doesn't mean it's right," Fox responded.

"When have you ever cared about things being right?" Wolf questioned, donning a bit of a scowl. "You're involvement in the Lylat Wars was based solely on the reward General Pepper promised. Your father may have egged you on. I would know, my father did the same to me when he was still alive, but that main reason is the credit value of the job."

Fox still shook his head. "There's a lot more than that."

"Honestly, McCloud, what else have you got to lose?" Wolf damn near growled. "You don't have a team. No job. No fortune or any sense of savings. No family besides your parents, and what are they to you right now? I don't mean to be a dick, but that's not much."

"I still have my honor; something you lack," the vulpine retorted through clenched teeth. "You'd do anything for a quick credit."

Wolf donned a knowing smirk and backed up slightly, then outstretched his arms in a gesture directed at Fox. "…And you wouldn't?"

"No, I…" Fox started off strong, then hesitated, giving Wolf all the ammunition he needed. "I wouldn't."

"If I told you what Andross truly stood for before he went off the deep end, you'd regret siding against him," the lupine blurted out. "You'd regret taking that money to fight against him. Tell me you wouldn't, and I'll tell my team to pack up and set up shop somewhere else; never to bother you again."

Fox didn't have anything to say.

"Andross and Muzzin may have different ideas, but they both had one common characteristic between them. They both were ambitious, with huge plans that would benefit everyone, yet people were scared of the drastic change they promised and sided against them. Andross' name and ideas were warped by the people that opposed him because they feared change. They wanted to believe that what he was doing was wrong, to avoid that change. Muzzin is last in the polls because the people don't want to accept that radical change is the future, and trash his name and reputation by calling him a revolutionist to keep him out of a seat of power."

Fox struggled to come up with the words to say, but eventually replied in a soft, feeble voice, "This can't be right…"

"You know who else was a revolutionist?" Wolf questioned, then pointed to a picture hanging above the couch he was lying on, directly at a family portrait of the McCloud household. "Your father reinvented the term "mercenary". You know that people hated him for the longest time, because everyone thought he was just doing dirty jobs for a profit. It took someone else's trust to drive that misconception out of people's heads and spread the true meaning of what mercenary work meant."

Wolf shifted his stance and shut his eyes, letting a breath out of his nose. "In a way, Senator Muzzin is like James McCloud. His ambition gets him recognition as a revolutionary, but that change is what people dread. His name is trashed, and his ideas are stepped on in favor of more… concrete ideas, like the ones who supported an organized military. The CDF—heard of it?—wouldn't be as strong as it is now without mercenary companies covering their asses when they don't have a clue as to what they're supposed to do in time of conflict and peril. Nobody knew that, except for General Pepper. Someone the people could trust… put trust in something the people couldn't. And what happened? Star Fox _flourished_. The whole goddamn private mercenary company marked _flourished_. Just imagine what would happen to Muzzin if that trust was there."

Wolf reestablished eye contact with Fox and shook his head. "People are ignorant. They always see change as an evil that needs to be put down before it even starts. Mercenary work was considered an evil thirty-plus years ago, and now look at it. It's one of the biggest strings keeping the Lylatian Homeland Coalition's economy together. It keeps tensions at a minimum. You're father stopped a Katinian revolution before it could spread throughout the system and compromise the LHC. How did all of this happen? Ambition. …People don't understand."

The lupine took a few steps forward and outstretched an arm to Fox—as if he could accept it with his hands tied together. "But we do. We understand all of that ambition. Why did we side with Andross before the frustration he had pent up with everyone trashing his reputation came out in a full-scale invasion and war, and sided with him in that time? Because he was _right,_ being the visionary he was, and everyone was too naïve to see it and accept it, which made him snap and flip his research into weapons and an army. Taking that argument into consideration, why are we siding with Muzzin? Because his ideas are going to take the LHC in a completely different direction, and I think I can speak for him when I say… it's going to be amazing."

Fox blinked. "Okay, who are you, and what did you do with Wolf?"

Wolf snickered. "Like I said, McCloud: once you get into the political side of mercenary work, there's really no going back. Politics are really about persuasion; appealing to a particular audience; convincing them that there is more than just a nasty outer shell to a big plan. You don't need a degree in psychology to figure this out. Hell, you don't need any education… but don't let me talk to the kids at home, for their sake."

"So is this just a scam to get me to support your cause?" Fox spat.

"Quite the opposite, actually," Wolf answered, smirking again. "Everything I told you is true. What I'm asking you is to think about whether or not _you_ believe it is true yourself."

"In all honesty, why should I?" Fox questioned.

"I seem to recall giving my word," Wolf responded with a hint of disappointment at Fox's supposed ignorance. "I'm not out to kick you while you're down. I'm offering you a second chance. A chance to reestablish yourself in the profession your father pretty much perfected. It may not be your cup of joe, but it's merc work. You do what you need to do, and if you do it right, you get paid. Simple as that."

Fox hesitated for all but a split second. Wolf's presentation was indeed brilliant. Hell, it made him seem like a college professor in the way he eloquently described the situation, but it was such a flip in Fox's previous mentality that kept him from agreeing to Wolf's proposition. _He?_ Join Star Wolf? That just seemed too much of a culture swing for him to accept right away.

Yet, the more he thought, the more those commas appealed to him more and more. The more change seemed great. It may be crazy… but butter his ass and call him a biscuit, it might just work.

Fox smirked and looked at Wolf dead in his eye. "One condition. If what we're doing _here_ goes belly-up, I'm telling the feds I was held hostage and you can kiss freedom and your three commas goodbye. If this works… …Guess you've got another member to account for."

"I knew you'd agree," Wolf shot him a toothy grin filled with satisfaction. "And don't worry, I've got the best in the business working on—"

"Shit!" Adam's voice resounded from the kitchen. "Did we just crash?"

Wolf growled and harshly lifted Fox to his feet, damn near stumbling over due to the force being applied to him. He then held Fox by the scruff of his neck and led him into the kitchen where the blue jay was furiously searching the servers set up on the kitchen table, while Patrik and Sheila were looking at him.

"Dude, what the hell?" Wolf snapped, thrusting Fox forward with an unceremonious push to which he almost fell over due to the lack of balance his bound arms provided.

"The power is out," Sheila pointed out, poking a digit at the servers. "The servers are off."

Wolf immediately looked over at Adam, glaring daggers while the avian looked completely terrified.

"Ok, fine," he blurted out, throwing up his wings. "I wanted to set up one more CPU—just one—to bump up the processing speed, so I turned on the power, and then the whole system lit up, and—"

"Yeah it did, you dick," Patrik interrupted, the deadpan of his tone making Sheila giggle slightly. "Because I bypassed the meter and went directly to the feed to cut time. That surge just fragged the whole fucking system."

"How was I supposed to know that you bypassed the meter?" Adam squawked. "You never tell anyone what you do!"

"And what do you do?" Wolf shot. "Besides balls everything up."

"I happen to be your best hacker and coder, thank you," the avian answered scornfully, sitting back at his station. "You should be asking Dahlstrom what he does."

"What do I do?" Patrik echoed, blankly staring at the bird with an admittedly intimidating stare despite his tone implying that he did not care whatsoever, which, evidently, was the complete opposite of the case. "Besides being a gunner and ground soldier when you need me to, I also do system architecture, networking, and security."

Fox's head immediately craned over to the mountain of a canine. "Wait, you—"

"And I'm damn good at it too," he continued, keeping his level-headed and calm tone. "While all of you were busy minoring in gender studies and game development, and playing fourth or fifth string in college sports, I was getting direct access to the CDF's servers without anyone knowing that I was one click away from starting a Fichinian revolt."

Sheila awkwardly raised her paw. "I actually studied—"

"I prevent our firewall from being penetrated, I monitor for security attacks and faulty transaction handlings, and I keep this PMC above water. Do you have any idea how all of this data gets transferred without any issues? Do you have any idea how all of this technology seems to synchronize together like one of those choreographed musical numbers that you were most likely a part of in your college career?"

"Here he goes again…" Natalia muttered under her breath.

Not losing any steam in his tirade, Patrik continued, "All of those tiny ones and zeros streaming directly to those shitty little smartphones in your pockets? All of those twelve-year-old dipshits who shit their pants if they can't get the latest sports scores in under ten seconds? All of that pornographic material of underage vixens stripping for a bunch of horny dumbasses with malware that seamlessly seep through the best antivirus software to steal everything from bank account information to your entire retirement fund? Do you really understand how that happens? It's not some ludicrous know-it-all putting a bunch of letters, numbers, and symbols together in a long string of nonsensical garbage that somehow manages to deliver your erotic selfies to your significant other to turn them on before you get home at night to bang them until the sun comes up. It's called talent, something _I_ have that none of you seem to possess."

After a momentary pause, Patrik continued, "So, my job on this team right now is to make sure that one bad configuration on one key component doesn't blow our cover and jeopardize this mission. That's what the fuck I do."

Fox would have applauded had his paws not been incapable of doing so. Instead, he continued down the line to look over at Sheila, involuntarily freezing up as soon as his gaze met her beauty. Fox immediately felt a dry tickle at the back of his throat, as well as an unnoticeable accumulation of saliva building at the corner of his muzzle, threatening to drip out and slowly descend to the ground like a spider building a web. Sheila met his gaze with a melodramatic twist of her head, flailing her voluminous locks behind her, doubling as the final strike to send Fox into a trance-like state.

Which was interrupted as a hard elbow contacted the back of his head.

"Hey, get your own," Wolf grunted, prompting another rough shove as well.

"Be nice to him," Sheila whined, bolting forward to stop Fox from staggering forward any longer. Fox felt his cheeks warm up as a result, since Sheila was Wolf's height, and with how he tumbled forward and bent his knees to keep himself from falling flat on his face, he almost ran nose-first right into the light copper husky's cleavage. Only by sheer willpower and the desire to avoid making a scene in front of Wolf did he managed to balance himself before he involuntarily went swimming in her chest.

Sheila smiled when Fox mustered the courage to look up at her. "Hi, I'm Sheila. I'm Wolf's part—"

Wolf coughed to stop her, giving her a scowl as he shook his head.

Sheila cocked her own and shot him a quizzical stare. "Gir—"

Again, Wolf growled to interrupt her.

"Mat—"

Wolf huffed impatiently and took a few steps forward, stepping forward to separate the two. "Sheila's my third string pilot, behind Leon. She's got a lot of skill, but she's got a lot to learn."

"I guess I owe him," the husky admitted, drooping her ears as if her balloon of energy and hyperactivity were unexpectedly popped right then and there. "There was a mission that went belly-up years back while I still was employed by the CDF. Had Wolf not come down to save me, I would've died."

"And you're damn lucky I did," Wolf grunted, stepping back towards Adam. Sheila watched him walk away, and glared at his turned back, but just faded into a sad and defeated expression after a moment or two. She sulked over to the kitchen table and sat down on one of the seats, laying her muzzle down on the table with an expression of vague longing and overall sorrow.

"Don't you think you were a little harsh on her?" Fox questioned, sparing a glance in the husky's direction, to which she let out a miniscule grin at the concern.

"She's my property now, McCloud," Wolf snapped back at him. "She's in my debt, and basically owes her life to me. What's it matter to you?"

Fox tried to retort, but noticed Sheila wave her paw in his direction and gesture for him to not speak back. Fox cocked an eyebrow in her direction, to which she just nodded her eyes in Wolf's direction and gently shook her head. The vulpine sighed, nodded, and then attempted to chase after Wolf, only for a pair of paws to wrap around his chest to prevent him from moving.

"Hey, there's my favorite hero!" Natalia said happily, putting pressure on his chest.

Fox immediately broke away and started glaring daggers at her. "You! What—"

"I suppose you want an answer to why I put on that whole charade only to completely take advantage of you?" Natalia giggled, swaying her hips while batting her eyes.

"Well, _kinda_ ," Fox scoffed.

Natalia's giggle increased in volume. "I'm Wolf's operational weapon, so to speak. I've got a little bit of everything hidden up my sleeve."

"So you're his agent," Fox blurted out.

"You could say that," she smirked, a devilish smile plastered on her muzzle. "Con artist. Assassin. Spy. Slipping through enemy lines is my specialty."

She bit her lip and slowly approached Fox, using a clawed digit to trace a line down the exposed part of his chest, speaking in a blatantly seductive voice, "You don't know how easy it is to take advantage of people by either teasing them into submission, or doing something they never expect and exposing their weak points that way."

Fox growled and bared his clenched teeth at her. "So, what whore house did Wolf pick you up at?"

"Careful," the coyote breathed, and before Fox knew it he was staring at a reflection of himself in a small, handheld blade aimed directly at his throat. "I can tell you how long it will take for you to bleed out if I cut any major vein of my choice. Think twice before you decide to run your mouth to a girl who gets paid to do this kind of stuff."

"She's a beautiful, lethal weapon, runt," Wolf snickered. "Even _I_ wouldn't get on her bad side."

"Note taken," Fox grunted, the tip of her blade nicking away a few centimeters from his neck fur.

"Natty and I met at a bar on the outskirts of East End Corneria City, for your information," Wolf commented, gently peeling her lean and rather toned arm away, therefore pulling the metallic blade away from puncturing his neck. "This bartender here was only sixteen when I let her tell me her story. Father took off with all of the family dough, and her mother tried to make ends meet, only to get into trouble with the authorities when she took a job that promised a payout. I felt like doing a good thing that day."

"That's a first," Fox remarked under his breath.

"I offered her a job with increased pay so that she could provide for her family," Wolf broke right back in, a glare finding its direction towards Fox. "But, like Sheila, I was saving her ass, so, in essence, I bought her. But I trained her myself. I was never good at blending in, but she learns well. Now she's my field operator, for the most part."

"Who else did you buy?" Fox questioned, a hint of sarcasm finding its way into his tone.

"Kajær and Dahlstrom had their own merc company, specializing in the technological side of the profession. I only had pilots and assassins, and in our day and age, with technology becoming more and more mainstream, I needed to evolve. It took a bit of convincing on my part, but I did manage to buy up their company if they came to work for me. We also… had to eliminate one of their competitors, but if that decreased the price tag on their small team, then it was no small order for me to do."

"I assume Leon, Pigma, and Andrew are still following you around," the vulpine commented.

"What can I say?" Wolf chuckled, a smug grin creasing his bearded muzzle, gesturing for Natalia to leave, which she did after quickly pecking his muzzle as she walked away. "Leon is my most loyal, and one of my best assassins. Flies just as good as you and I too. Pigma betrayed our team just like he did to your old man's team, and luckily, just like your father, didn't kill anyone. But, because of that instability I lost Andrew, but I couldn't give two shits about where he is now. So, I guess you could say that Star Wolf got a bit of a facelift in your absence."

Fox nodded his head. "Just as long as I get what I deserve here, and don't get treated like one of your expendable soldiers you pick up off the streets, I think we'll be on equal terms."

"For the record, pup," the lupine said, lowering his voice as he approached him. Setting a paw on his shoulder, he continued, "I'm really stoked to have you on this team. We had our doubts, but, eventually, we all agreed that getting you on board would benefit our team in the long run."

"It's gonna get some getting used to," Fox admitted, a goofy looking smirk plastered on his face. "It's gonna be weird working for a team that was at my throat years back."

"I'm willing to push that under the rug if you are."

Fox nodded, outstretching his paw, to which Wolf accepted in a firm, strong handshake that would have crushed a normal man's hand in an instant.

"Deal."

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 **A/N: Had this done for a few days, but FanFiction's review servers were apparently not synchronized with the rest of their servers, and I didn't want to miss out on you guys' reviews. The only issue I had was Elarix's long-ass reviews to both this and Veria that I couldn't see all of, so... yeah...** **But, anyway, I made sure to check every other opportunity I had to see when the reviews were coming back up, and as soon as they were, I popped this in the oven of proofing and finally updating.**

 **Glad to see you guys like this so far. I've got a lot of plans for this story, and I do look at suggestions should anybody have them. I hope to hear from you guys on this chapter as well. Take care, and enjoy!**

 **~Sheppard**


	3. Live

**A/N: Just a quick little note this time. I've decided to lower the ages of all of the characters by four since the time of this first going up. So, at first Fox was 32 in this, but now he'll be 28. This is here just to make the overall flow of this seem better in the future. Sorry for making a core change three chapters in, but I felt like this would be for the better.**

 **Thanks for all of the reviews, and hopefully this chapter will provide a few answers, and maybe even a few laughs too. Hope y'all enjoy.**

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 **Chapter III — Live**

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 **Kirsty Hawkshaw — "Face to Face" [Seba Remix]**

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Bathed only in the yellowing glow of a desk lamp precariously perched on the very edge of the small, heavy oaken desk, a notepad covered with almost indistinguishable notes sat off to the side of the lamp's elliptical center of illumination. Hastily written words that disregarded the notepad's printed lines were smothered all over the page, some written in pencil, black pen, and even red pen in some occasions, but all of them had one common characteristic. Somehow, someway, and sometime in the future, they would be important.

Cluttering the already diminutive work space the desk provided were balls of crumpled paper, pens without ink, pencils that had been inadvertently snapped in half, and enough pencil eraser shavings to fill a small bucket. Yet, there was a sense of organization to the cluttered desk. All of the paper wads were neatly piled up on the leftmost portion of the desk, with some of them inadvertently falling out of the pile and onto the dark crimson carpet. All of the used up pens were compiled into an old white coffee mug that had a crack running from the top of the handle all the way down to the base, rendering the mug useless when it came to its intended use. Another broken mug, a black one this time, sat next to the other mug, this one filled with new pens that had yet to see the paper. Finally, piled up by the desk lamp sat the shattered pencils, each one with their own story of what frustrations they had to endure before snapping.

The office the desk and its contents resided in indeed felt like an author's paradise. Bookshelves lined the walls not occupied by the presence of windows overlooking the spacious backyard the home in and of itself possessed, nor did they take up the space where the glass door and accompanying glass walls connected the office with the hallway that intersected it. From said door, the desk was pushed up against the left wall, where the two tall arched windows looked to the outside, and the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves covered the back and right walls in respect to the unused wall space. Aside from the desk lamp's light and the light that would seep through the tall, gothic-like windows in the daytime hours, the room would be completely dark, giving the room a very sophisticated feel. Like now: it was the evening hours, so the room had a very dark and ominous feel with how the warm colors interacted with the lackluster amount of light.

In an upholstered office chair a few feet away from the desk sat a slender and beautiful red vixen, clothed in a white, woolen sweater with a silk black skirt topping her outfit off. Her legs were crossed as her light sapphire eyes gazed into the novel she had become infatuated with ever since she picked it up. With her long, bushy tail limply laying over her lap, strategically covering up what normally would be exposed if she crossed her legs in the manner that she did with what her attire consisted of, the vixen let the words printed on the page flow through her eyes and into her head, processing every little detail of the engrossing novel.

Yet, as soon as she got to a particular part of the novel, she gasped, shoved her ribbon bookmark into the page, and then quickly wheeled over to her desk. She immediately grabbed one of her working pens and jotted down about ten or so words of notes onto her already cluttered notebook page, not worrying about if it was legible at her current moment. As soon as her outburst was over, she sighed and reopened her book to where she left off, but stopped when she heard a soft chuckle sound off from the doorway.

"I always find it amusing when you get your little burst of inspiration," a male voice said with a vague tone of friendly teasing. She looked up, seeing a muscularly balanced red vulpine leaning on the glass doorway with a sly smirk creasing his cream furred muzzle. Ignoring the fact that he had just finished working out, apparent with the lack of clothing he had and the horrid scent that traveled up to her nose, the vixen smirked back at him and jokingly stuck her tongue out at him, accompanied with a near silent giggle that slipped out of her snort, slender muzzle.

"You know how my memory is anymore," she replied, folding her book back up. "Plus, I'm at a critical part of my own book, so I can't afford to forget something that might be important."

"Working on another best-seller, eh Vixy?" the vulpine smiled, flicking his tail in apparent interest. "What'cha got up your sleeve now?"

"Third installment to the _Shield_ series," Vixy answered, turning back to her notepad. "Should be the last one to that series if I plan this right."

"Thinking about killing anyone off yet?"

Vixy giggled as she pointed at one of the sections of messy handwriting covering the paper. "Way ahead of you, James. But, I don't know who yet. I don't know if I want to be evil and kill one of the original characters from the very first book, or if I want to take out one of the fan favorites."

James laughed and stepped through the doorway, shutting the glass door behind him. "I think Bryan should get the stick."

"No, everyone wants him dead," Vixy explained, resting her elbows back on her desk. "I want to kill someone that nobody will expect."

"Remind me not to take your comments out of context," James chuckled again, grabbing the back of Vixy's chair and looking over her shoulder down at her mess of notes.

"I'm leaning towards Farkas, but I don't want this book to get a negative reaction if I kill her," Vixy nearly lamented, crossing off her name from a section she marked "targets," which only added to James' argument not to take things out of context. "It's probably going to be either Ian, Rawls, or—"

"No, don't kill off Rawls; he's my favorite character," James whined, shaking her chair for good measure.

"That settles it then," Vixy cooed, circling the name over and over again with her pen.

"Aww, baby, please," James pleaded, spinning the chair around so that Vixy was facing him.

"I've made up my mind," Vixy smugly smirked, tossing the pen behind her so that it clattered back down on the desk. "Say goodbye to Ra— ah!"

Without warning, James scooped the vixen out of the seat and held her close to his chest like an oversized baby, while Vixy squealed and whined, flailing her arms and legs to try to break free.

"Ah, James, don't do that!" she yipped, unable to control her laughter as the male vulpine carried her out of the office and down the hallway, nearly stumbling through the archway that connected the hall with the main room. In one graceful motion, James tossed Vixy onto the couch pressed against the far wall, and before she could escape he landed right on top of her, pinning her down by her wrists.

Vixy squirmed with all of her power, but couldn't manage to push the heavier fox off. However, she did find an alternative, using the tip of her tail to tickle James' hind paw, and using that as a momentary distraction she slipped out of his grasp, sliding out onto the carpeted floor as if she became a liquid right then and there. Yet, that only made it worse as James was right there to jump back on top of her, straddling the base of her tail as he pinned her arms to the floor again.

"Can't get out of this, can ya?" James teased, playfully gnawing on Vixy's huge fennec-like ear.

"Fine," she moaned in submission, patting her tail against the ground. "I'll kill someone else if you get off."

"Promise?" James asked smoothly, tickling the inside of her ear with his breath.

"Yes, James," Vixy grunted, relieving inadvertent pressure by twisting her arms around. "I promise."

Satisfied with her answer, James pecked her on the cheek before lifting himself up, then proceeding to outstretch his paw and help Vixy up as well.

"You act like a little kid sometimes, you know that?" Vixy smirked, straightening out her outfit.

"What's life without a little bit of fun?" James' witty comment replied, prompting Vixy to roll her eyes with a slight snicker.

"I shouldn't have expected you to say anything different," Vixy sighed, sitting down on the couch. "Now, go take a shower, smelly. I could barely breathe with you on me."

"Care to join?" James unconsciously asked.

"Maybe later," Vixy answered with a yawn. "I'm not really in the mood today."

"Fair enough," James nodded, winking at the vixen. "I'll be quick, then. Maybe we can watch a movie after?"

"Don't you think it's getting late though?" Vixy said, unable to withhold yet another yawn.

"True," the vulpine shrugged his head.

"I'll think about it," she smiled, gesturing him away. "Now, go."

James finally obliged and slipped away, disappearing into the hallway. With the room to herself, Vixy sighed and seemingly melted into the couch, laying her head on the headrest. She dug her hind claws into the upholstery just a bit as she picked up the remote lying on the end table behind her, then proceeded to power on the TV hanging from the wall over the fireplace.

Moments later, the local news channel popped on the plasma display. Vixy subconsciously reached for the remote to change the channel, but stopped in her tracks as she saw the screen. Little did she know that she had stumbled into the middle of a late night talk show with a handsome young leopard, who was talking to his guest: a similarly sized red wolf dressed in a very tidy suit and tie. Immediately interested, the vixen set the remote down as the applause at the site of the recording quieted down.

"So, Senator Muzzin," the leopard started, setting down his mug. "I understand that you have some interesting topics that you are going to bring up around the time of this year's election. Would you care to elaborate?"

Senator Victor Muzzin let a sly smirk crease his narrow muzzle as he crossed his right ankle overtop his left knee, folding his paws in his lap. "I really don't wish to spoil premature ideas," he answered truthfully, licking his chops—a usual sign of either an uncorrected juvenile habit or an unprofessional expression of various (usually negative or sadistically comforting) emotions. "I'd hate for an opposing candidate to take them for his or herself. It's a corrupted world nowadays, Yan."

The leopard, Yan, nodded his head and glanced down at his papers for a split second before continuing, "So, what is your stance on your position in the upcoming election? You've been running campaigns for a few months now, yet you still can't seem to break the top five in early voting approval rates. Is there a distinct reason for this lack of support early on?"

"As far as I'm concerned it has nothing to do with what _I_ am doing," Muzzin replied, a slight scowl appearing on his face. "I hate to point fingers at my people, but I do fear that it's my own people that decided not to support me in my endeavors. It is rather unfortunate—I'm trying to stay on their side, after all—but there's only so much I _can_ do."

"Is there a specific reason the people seem to not put their trust in you?"

"I could name a few, not just one," the red wolf commented, slicking back his long, greasy hair behind his ears for the umpteenth time in the interview. "Now, this is a talk show, not a political debate, so I'll spare the potential rant I may accidentally give off, but in short, I believe it is fear that deters them. Truthfully, I don't have anyone to blame for that. It is Lylatian nature after all. Psychology, if you will."

"And how do you think you can combat that?" Yan asked, genuinely interested.

"Simple; fight psychology _with_ psychology," he answered, licking the sides of his muzzle once more. "In order for someone to gain appeal, they first need to do something to appeal to their target audience. In contrast, if you do something drastic that won't appeal to the audience, you'll fall through the cracks. I've found myself in the middle. There are my devout supporters that love the positive changes I've done on Macbeth, but, of course, there are those that oppose and say that the methods I've conceived on my homeworld will not transfer over to a largely populated planet such as Corneria, let alone the entirety of the LHC as is."

Yan hummed in approval. "So, do you think that this Prime Minister campaign of yours is just an experiment to see if colonial policies can be enacted for the entire LHC?"

"I wouldn't dare limit my visions to a mere _experiment_ ," Muzzin spat, suddenly becoming very offended. "I did not spend six years as Senator of Macbeth, rebuilding that planet from the ground up, just to throw away my methods for a few minutes of fame. No, I wouldn't do that. Rather, I want to spread my word, since most people aren't even acquainted with Macbeth, let alone do they know what laws and policies I've enacted that have changed that planet for the better. They don't know what happened to Macbeth ever since I took office. Do you, by chance, know of my reputation and résumé?"

"I'm sorry, I don't, Mr. Senator," Yan awkwardly answered.

"Pity," the lupine huffed, licking his lips once more. "I'd be willing to share it if you agree to become aware of my political background in your spare time, Mr. Carris."

"Oh, uh, okay," the leopard hastily agreed.

Vixy sighed and shook her head. "Jeez, this Muzzin guy is a dick… …Wait, wasn't he the guy that lost that years back…?"

Muzzin repositioned himself on his seat, once again licking his muzzle in an almost greedy and self-pleasured manner. "I could go on and on all night about what I've done that has positively evolved Macbeth to more than just an industrial outpost. I'll limit it to just a few, mainly to expand on what I think will particularly benefit Corneria and her colonies. After all, what good is it to enact a law that is irrelevant to the situation at hand? Hell, it's like authorizing mandatory secondary school while there's a war going on, no?"

Yan gulped, obvious to the fact that Muzzin just blatantly took a shot at the current Prime Minister and what he did. Nevertheless, Muzzin lost no steam in his side of the story as he continued, "Anyway, one thing that benefitted Macbeth was the passing of a governmental reconstruction law. Macbeth, as you all _should_ be aware of, is small in terms of population numbers, but all seem to gather around main hubs. That upsets district balance, which was hurting growth because the minority became the majority in voting because of how the districts were split. Now, keep in mind, Macbeth still had the same style of voting as Corneria, where it is necessary to achieve a majority vote in all _civilian_ district voting and, moreover, the population as a whole, in order for a legislative bill to be completely approved. Don't get me wrong, it's a great system, _if_ it's balanced evenly to prevent bias. Macbeth was getting nowhere because of this unbalanced distribution. So, instead of relocating people to reestablish that balance—which would create more problems, because that would be forcing people out of their own homes—I decided to scrap the district idea entirely. No representatives from districts, no uneven division of voter power, and most of all, no bias."

"So you scrapped the old representative and civilian voting style of government—"

"And replaced it with a singular executive and a team of advisors," Muzzin finished for him, "I.E: me and the legislative congress. That way we can limit the civilian influence to a noteworthy guideline, if you will."

Yan cocked his eyebrow. "So, a dictatorship?"

"Anything but that," Muzzin scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Only ignorant people believe I run a dictatorship on Macbeth. If I ran a dictatorship, I wouldn't be running for the Prime Minister's seat. I would stay where I still had the authority, instead of trying to claim a seat where you're overshadowed by the people that choose you, which is more counterproductive than anything."

Muzzin unfolded his legs and sat forward, using his right paw to motion different gestures as he spoke. "You know, that brings me to one of my main topics, as a matter of fact. Have you ever seen the stories on the news or in the paper that depict a governmental official putting an idea in the works? Those almost always get a lot of support within the LHC legislature, which means that it goes to the overall voting phase. That's what we had on Macbeth, and in case you've forgotten since I've said it last, that style of voting really screwed the system over, because a lot of good laws would be shot down. That's what I want to change. I want to get rid of the biased appeal of the citizens, and have that power stay with the people in power, because _they_ actually know what they're talking about, instead of the population that would only approve of laws that would provide immediate benefits."

Vixy shook her head at the screen. "Idiot. That's really gonna screw everything up."

Yan looked just about as skeptical as Vixy did. "Do you really think that this idea of government will thrive on a planet with a much bigger population and a much broader range of opportunities?"

"I actually believe it will _flourish_ in this environment," Muzzin responded, slathering his tongue along the sides of his muzzle. "In my personal opinion, the district system is even more flawed _here_ than it was on Macbeth. The districts are so large here that they can only support a single economic class within its boundaries. The legislatures before me believed that this would better improve the economic stability of this Coalition, and indeed it did, but they failed to realize that doing this not only screwed up the districts' unbiased voter majority, but they also disrupted our growth as a system united. Have you noticed that—ever since that economic law was put into effect that designated people of a certain socioeconomic class to a particular district—the rich districts of the planet have become richer, while the slums just fell deeper into the cracks? It upset the equal balance of wealth, therefore doing the opposite of its intention, being that it furthered the class boundaries that I, and many others, believed that we had finally removed at the turn of the century. And since the wealthy areas hold that voter majority, the law cannot be repealed."

Muzzin just snorted and shook his head after regaining his breath, clenching and unclenching his paw. "Sorry, my blood pressure tends to spike when I talk about these things. Anyway, as I was saying, my main goal is to reform this blatantly obvious corrupted democratic system we have, and transform it into a government that will continue to thrive in adapting situations as it once has. No more of this "the people always have the right way" mentality. If they did, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in."

"Don't you think that maybe downgrading the voters and criticizing them in the manner expressed here is a bit counterintuitive for your intention?" Yan asked.

"It's _always_ about the voters," Muzzin said with mock enthusiasm. "Always about them when it comes to the future. They assume they know what's best because they live in these situations for their entire lives. I hate to say it, but they're wrong. And if they think I'm being critical of their decisions, then I'm sorry, but they're a bunch of ignorant hypocrites. All I have to say is that I hope they're anticipating what horrors are to come if they elect someone that continues to do what is driving this Coalition into the dirt."

Yan turned to face the camera. "Powerful words from an aspiring Minister. Senator Victor Muzzin everyone. Victor, thank you for coming on tonight."

As the applause exploded from the lave audience, the red wolf stood up and shook the leopard's paw, smiling and licking his muzzle. "It was my pleasure to attend."

After Muzzin retracted his paw and haphazardly waved to the crowd off-camera, the host continued, "Okay, we're going to go to a quick commercial break, but stay tuned! Up next is the lead singer from _Rising Horizons_ , Tim Sykes, talking about their upcoming album _The Black Spirit_. Don't go away!"

"Ugh, of course they only bring on garbage bands to these kinds of shows," Vixy muttered under her breath, changing the channel as soon as the commercial wave hit. As soon as she got comfortable, the phone sitting in the kitchen started ringing.

Vixy moaned in protest. "You've got to be kidding me! If this is some credit card scam I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"

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Now with actual clothes instead of his robe, Fox emerged from the bathroom in the hallway and walked into the living room. Adam sat on the couch with a handheld tablet, completely focused as he scrolled through his screen with Patrik looking over his shoulder. On the other couch sat Sheila, occupying herself by brushing her extremely lengthy and voluminous light cinnamon locks with her hairbrush. He saw Wolf out of the corner of his eye talking with Leon and Natalia, and decided to try and join in on the conversation, only for Sheila to hiss to get his attention, waving her open paw in his direction. Internally rolling his eyes, Fox nodded his head and approached her.

"No, see, here's what you did wrong," Patrik said, pointing at the blue jay's screen. "You wrote a string in the wrong location, so when you get to here, it automatically goes way back to here instead of continuing on."

"Is that really all it was?" Adam asked, tilting the tablet around. "I thought your servers could find a loophole to avoid one string of faulty code."

"Well, if the servers weren't apologizing for your shit codebase, it probably could."

"Ok, well," Adam blurted out, standing up off of the couch. "My codebase could handle the server traffic, fuck your mother, take a video of it, upload it, and even that video wouldn't buffer."

A taunting, sarcastic sounding laugh left the malamute's muzzle. "I would love to see you try, bub."

Ignoring the bickering between the two, Fox sat down on the open cushion next to the husky, crossing his legs as he got comfortable. As soon as he did, however, Sheila immediately scooted up to him to the point where the air he was breathing started swimming in her hair.

"So, Fox," she started, her tail wagging wildly. "What do you think about joining us? I'm positive you're psyched to get started."

Fox sighed and shrugged. "This isn't anything like I've ever done before. I've always done combat missions, not the full field of strategic mercenary work."

"I'm sure you can get the hang of it," the husky smiled, wrapping an arm around the vulpine, to which he scrunched his neck in slightly as if to try to escape her grasp. "I'm really happy that you said yes, by the way. I'm excited to get to work with someone of your skill."

"Oh, thanks," Fox said distantly, looking around to try to get out of Sheila's lavender smelling hair.

"All right, gentle ladies and ugly bastards, listen up," Wolf announced firmly, stepping out of the kitchen with Leon and Natalia in tow. "Because Adam's garbage codebase shit the bed, we've got to switch to plan B."

"Oh, sure, blame the programmer," the blue jay muttered bitterly, assuming a pouting face.

"What were you even trying to do with that small search engine you brought with you?" Fox asked.

"Well, it was _supposed_ to slip right into the CDF's mainframe," Wolf answered, tossing a particularly nasty glare to the avian, who scoffed in disbelief and frustration, pointing and flailing his wings at the malamute smugly smirking next to him. "We can't do something of this magnitude with every single eye in the sky staring back down at us."

"Basically, we were trying to wipe our names," Patrik added, crossing his arms as he slouched on the couch. "Diplomatic merc work requires a lot of interplanetary travel, so we can meet up with our next ally. Our identity is our only enemy when it comes to that. Wipe our names from the archives, and our list of prices on our heads and our red flags get wiped too. A clean slate will get you anywhere in this system."

Wolf nodded. "And since we've got a faulty system that would take another painstakingly long week to rewrite to get us into that archive, we've got to switch to our only alternative. I hate to say it, but we're gonna have to risk getting caught to meet up with an ally to do it for us."

Adam groaned loudly. "Wolf, I don't mean to sound dickish, but I can easily have the codebase rewritten in four days if you'd just be patient."

"And it would take _two_ days, if that, to get it done _MY_ way," Wolf retorted. "Time isn't in surplus here, Kajær. The sooner we can get our names wiped, the sooner we can start operating without being stuck under the radar, the sooner we can start causing chaos to lead Muzzin straight into that lead chair, and then the sooner we get that huge payoff. It's all in direct correlation here."

"I'd love to hear what _brilliant_ idea you have that might be better than waiting until I've got it redone," Adam remarked scornfully.

"For one, I can't trust if your rewritten code won't shit _everyone's_ pants when we try to use it," Wolf countered. "For two, I believe you fail to realize that we have one of the best hackers on the market on our side, and would definitely help us if we gave him a chunk of that reward money."

"I find it funny that you are all too willing to dish out money we don't have yet," Patrik remarked, his tone of voice completely contrasting his topic of discussion. Continuing in his blank voice, he said, "Pretty soon we won't have enough of that value to split between us."

"Hey, if we don't get this done, we don't have anything to split," Wolf shot back. "A job like this needs to have a surplus of alternative options so that if one goes down the drain, we've got another one to go to. This job isn't a "do it when you feel like it" kinda thing, it's a "fucking do it now or we don't get paid" job. So, that being said, shut up so I can tell you what we're gonna do now."

Wolf walked over and snatched the tablet out of Adam's wings, who—as a joke—continued to hold them out in front of his chest as if he was holding an imaginary tablet instead. Sheila seemed to be the only one that found the avian's gesture funny, but as soon as her little giggle fit simmered down, Wolf started speaking again.

"So, before I begin, and since I've got everyone in the same room, I'd officially like to welcome Fox McCloud into Star Wolf," he announced, followed by a round of near silent applause, aside from a little loud outburst from the husky sitting next to the vulpine in question. Rolling his eyes, Wolf continued, "He'll be an invaluable addition, I'm sure. Just know, runt… you cross me or any of my teammates, I will fucking skin you alive. Understood?"

Uncharacteristically, Fox gulped before nodding in agreement.

"Great," Wolf said with mock gratitude. "Okay. Now, pup, I'm actually not very sorry in the slightest, but I'm gonna need you right away."

Fox cocked and eyebrow. "Already?"

"Believe me, I wouldn't say anything if I wasn't desperate," Wolf explained, shaking his head at the sound of what just slipped through his teeth. "I need you to get in contact with your cousin."

"I'm sorry?"

Wolf slapped his paw against his forehead. "Catsuit vixen?"

"Wait, Scarlet?" Fox about balked. "Why? Are you serious?"

"As a hear—"

"A heart attack, I know," Fox interrupted, removing himself from the husky's friendly grasp to stand up. "For one, she's my _third_ cousin, thank you; and for two, why?"

"She's working for a big merc company in the CDF, no?"

"Not anymore," Fox corrected. "She's an independent merc now."

Wolf's eyes slowly shut as a long breath of air left his nose. "Well, shit. That really puts a wrench in my plans."

"For the _third_ time now, why?" Fox asked, starting to get impatient.

"Scarlet worked with Dahlstrom and Kajær for a few months," Wolf answered, pointing a clawed thumb in the two mercenaries' direction. "They wiped out a drug lord's entire archive and exposed his hideout in less than four hours. They mentioned working with a gay little arctic fox that completely put those two's coding and technology to shame. Completely wiped out any sort of network security that gang had."

"Vince Stazac?" Fox blurted out. "He was the fox, right?

"You know him?"

"My father is friends with him. They were good friends back when they worked for the CDF."

Wolf smirked and lifted his eyebrow a few times. " _Good friends_?"

Fox groaned. "Okay, yeah, I know, Vince had—er, still has, I think—a _thing_ for my dad. It's old news."

"I just found it funny, sorry," Wolf said, fighting through laughter.

"What do you need with him anyway?"

"To do what _they_ couldn't," Wolf answered, shooting another glare at the two on the couch. Adam scoffed and outstretched his wings as if to say " _why are you always blaming me?_ " while Patrik just blew it off and slouched even further. "Vince can wipe our names like that," he added, snapping his fingers for good measure.

Fox shrugged his head with an indifferent, yet affirming expression. "Well, he definitely could. And since he's pretty close to me, I don't think he'd have an issue wiping our names. But Vince I don't think—"

"Good," Wolf grunted in approval, staring back at his tablet. "So we don't really need Scarlet then."

"Wait, no," Fox interjected, holding out his hand to stop him. "If we're dragging Vince into this, we're gonna need her at least once."

Wolf again cocked his brow. "You serious, pup?"

"As a heart attack," Fox responded, smirking as Wolf rolled his eyes. "Vince is the best in the business, as you said, but he's also a paranoid little guy. Scarlet and a few other notable mercs are his protection, because people like us are trying to use him. If we want to get Vinny, Scarlet is our only way of getting a hold of him."

"And how are you gonna get in contact with her without planting a bug in our equipment?" Patrik questioned. "If Stazac is as important as he is, he's gonna have tracing lines all over his and his protection's equipment. If you call her and tell her what you need him to do, we won't get out of this city without a target on our back, let alone out of this planet."

"Which is why I have a better alternative," Fox answered, pulling out his phone. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Better get the gear packed up now, fellas," Wolf remarked. "McCloud's gonna get us all busted."

Fox shook his head and stepped over to the front door, imputing a string of digits into his phone as he secluded himself in the corner of the room. He held it to his muzzle and ear respectfully, waiting for the dial tone to fade away into a familiar voice. It did after a while, but it wasn't who he had first anticipated.

"Hello, this is the McCloud household; Vixy speaking."

"Mom?" Fox blurted out, getting a few of the Star Wolf members to turn and look at him with questioning stares.

"FOXIE!" Vixy squealed, distorting the call quality somewhat. "Oh my goodness it's so great to hear your voice again! You're still alive!"

"Yeah, I missed you too," Fox chuckled awkwardly, waving his paw in his teammates' direction to dismiss them. "I'm sorry, I know I should have called earlier, but I've just been busy."

"Hah! You, _busy_?" Vixy balked humorously. "Okay, I may be old, but I can't remember the last time you were actually busy. Come on Fox, be reasonable here."

"Okay, okay, sorry," Fox responded, his ears drooping. "I'll explain later, but right now, I need you to do a big favor for me, okay?"

"Depends," Vixy huffed. "If you pay us a visit soon, I'll do it."

"Sure, yeah, that sounds good," Fox said with mock interest.

"Promise?"

"Yes, mom, I promise," Fox started to get a bit impatient. "Okay, hear me out. I need you or dad to get in contact with Scarlet for me."

"Scarlet?" Vixy scoffed. "Sweetie, as far as I know you haven't spoken a single word to her in ten years. Why do you need to talk to her all of a sudden?"

Fox hesitated, struggling to think of an appropriate response. To his dismay, that moment of hesitation allowed his mother to begin a potential onslaught of inferences.

"Wait, are you two dating?"

"No, mom," Fox groaned. "I just need to set up a meeting with her."

"So you two _are_ dating!"

"Mom!" Fox yipped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie, I don't mean to gossip," Vixy giggled innocently. "I've always felt like you and Scarlet were perfect for each other."

 _As if_ , Fox thought to himself. "No, it's just a get-together. …I mean as friends!"

"Sure," Vixy giggled again. "Say it all you want, but I'm still shipping you two."

"Can't you just put dad on the phone," Fox moaned.

"Can't; he's in the shower now. Is it something I could help with?"

"Well, I can't get a hold of Scar because she's in that high protection field. Her phone is blocked, even for me. Dad is the only one that could get her for me."

Wolf smirked at him from the kitchen archway at how easy it looked to wind around the truth to make the meeting seem so innocent. Fox nodded and poked his thumb skyward, prompting the lupine to nod and disappear into the kitchen behind him.

"Oh, shoot, I forgot about that," Vixy mumbled. "I'm sorry Fox, I didn't mean to tease you like that."

"It's okay," Fox assured. "So, can dad do it?"

"I don't see why he wouldn't," his mother answered. "He's the same way as me, ya know? He wants to see you and Scarlet hitch up—"

"I already have a girlfriend," Fox blurted out to stop her from going off on a tangent, but immediately slapped his forehead in regret because he just made it that much worse.

"Oh my goodness, you do?!" Vixy squealed. "Aww, I'm so proud of you! What's her name?"

Fox internally swore to himself, frantically searching for an answer. His eyes flew all over the room in a desperate plea for a quick answer, but then realized out of the corner of his eye that Sheila was staring back. She obviously overheard, and when Fox finally made eye contact, she mouthed the words "trust me," and pointed at herself.

Fox shook his head.

Sheila curled her eyebrows down and pointed directly at her chest.

Again, Fox shook his head.

"You still there Fox?"

Sheila about growled and poked her exposed midriff. "Say it or we're screwed!" she whispered almost silently.

Begrudgingly, the vulpine rolled his eyes and sighed into the receiver. "Her name's Sheila. She moved in across the street from me a few months ago."

"That's such an adorable name!" Vixy said happily. "Is she cute?"

Fox spared a glance in the husky's direction and said, "Yeah..." At that, Sheila giggled and attempted to cover her blush.

"Wait, I didn't even need to ask because I know that all vixens are cute," Vixy said, a bit of pride evident in her tone.

"Well, she's a husky, actually," Fox said hesitantly, biting his lip in apparent nervousness.

"Oh?" the vixen nearly stammered, evidently feeling the sensation of her train of thought being thrown off the rails. "Really? That's… odd."

"How so?" Fox asked right back, wondering why his mother would say that.

"Aren't huskies really high maintenance?" Vixy inquired. "Like, don't they usually need a lot of attention? And they're usually super affectionate too, right?"

"You can say that again," Fox muttered, sparing another glance in the light copper husky's direction. "But, I'm happy, and that's all that matters, right?"

"Well, I guess so," she answered truthfully. "You should introduce us, Fox. Your father and I would love to meet her."

"Ah, gee, well, I—"

"And if I have to I'll pay for an extra flight ticket to bring her with you when you come to Corneria to meet with Scarlet, then I'll do it."

"Actually, I've already made plans," Fox interjected. "We're gonna get our own flight. She works for a big contracting company, so she gets free flights to wherever she needs to go."

"Well that's convenient," Vixy said happily. "Anyway, I'll let your father know that you want to set up a meeting with Scarlet. Hey, maybe we can take out two things on our agendas by setting this up for all of us!"

Fox's smile immediately faded away. "Wait, what?"

"Oh, yeah, this is gonna be great!" the vixen exclaimed. "Your father and I are going to Corneria City's CHL game tomorrow night, and I know how much you loved going to those games, so I'll buy you and Sheila tickets, and have your father arrange for Scarlet to attend too!"

Fox flushed under his fur. "Wait, whoa, whoa—"

"Don't worry about buying your tickets, I'll cover for you," Fox's mother continued in a bubbly voice. "Just make sure that you and Sheila can get here in time for the game. I'll send your ticket info over an email as soon as I can get them."

"Mom, hold on," Fox pleaded, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

"I can't wait to see you and your girl, sweetie! I'll see you then! Bye!"

Before Fox could interject, his phone went silent. With a long, drawn out sigh of defeat, his ears pinned against the back of his head as he forced himself into the kitchen. He unceremoniously tossed his phone onto the table, the clattering catching the attention of everyone inside the small kitchen area.

"Enjoy talking to your mom?" Natalia remarked teasingly.

"I don't want to talk about it," Fox grumbled, burying himself into his arms after he sat down.

"What'd you do?" Leon questioned. "You didn't blow our cover, did you?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure I just made this meet-up with Scarlet all _but_ possible," Fox said, muffled by his arms. "Hope you guys are in for making a plan C."

"Depends," Wolf grunted. "How bad did you screw us over?"

Fox looked up and grinned sheepishly. "I hope you guys want to go see the Corneria City Majors play tomorrow, because that's where we have to go."

"A fucking CHL game?!" Wolf barked. "Are you serious?!"

"As—"

"Don't you even fucking say it," Wolf interrupted, visibly irritated. "How are we supposed to fly under the radar when we're going straight into Corneria's capital, _and_ going to a public rink that has upwards of a hundred thousand fans!"

"Blame my mother," Fox mumbled.

"Son of a bitch!" Wolf howled, slamming his balled paw into the kitchen table.

"Mom is not a bitch!" Fox shouted back.

"Boys!" Natalia shouted, stopping both of the bickering canines. "This isn't all bad, all right? We do what we do best; we improvise. Now, Fox, what exactly is going on?"

"My father is going to get Scarlet to go to the game tomorrow night," Fox started, settling back down into his seat. "I… kinda made my mom believe that Sheila was my girlfriend, and she's going to get the both of us tickets."

"You _what_?" Wolf growled.

"Easy," Natalia breathed, setting a paw on his chest. "Anything else?"

"Well, if we were planning all of you to go, we need to get all of you tickets so that we keep that target off of us," Fox continued. "Plus we need to worry about getting there—"

"Don't worry, we've got our carrier," Leon piped in. "And there are plenty of places to land on Corneria without getting the feds on us right away. Call them trustworthy allies."

"And McCloud's got that nice little truck in his garage," Patrik added. "It's probably got, what, seventy-two hours of charge on it?"

"Seventy-five," Fox corrected.

"I don't care!" Wolf suddenly broke in. "This is too much to risk on just the _setup_ of this job!"

"We really don't have another option," Fox admitted. "We—I hope—have Scarlet ready for a meetup, and once we get to her, we can get to Vince."

"And what makes you so sure she'll agree to this?" the lupine inquired.

"Believe me, you don't know Scarlet," Fox smirked knowingly. "Before her ongoing independent stint, she worked undercover in the darker part of merc work. She was a damn good assassin. Plus, Vince wiped her name too, so she's got a clean slate with him. If he can clear Scar, he'll clear us. And, like I said, Vince is a good family friend, and so is Scarlet."

Wolf sighed and grabbed at the bridge of his muzzle. "And you're sure this'll work?"

"Well, no," Fox answered slowly. "But, it's worth a shot. This game is our best bet. We won't get to Scar any other way."

"Fine," Wolf grunted, suddenly pointing at Fox. "But you're paying for the tickets."

"Are you kidding me?" Fox moaned. "They're almost a thousand credits apiece!"

"That's not my problem," Wolf smirked. "It's your fault that your mom picked a hot team. Didn't they win the Archie Cup last year?"

"Are you talking about the Majors?!" Sheila suddenly yipped, intruding on the conversation in the most boisterous of ways. "Oh my goodness, they're, like, my _favorite_ hockey team! Are we going to their game?!"

Wolf sighed. "Sheila, you're such a bandwagoner."

"A what?"

It was Fox's turn to sigh. "Someone who follows a team only because they're doing well."

"I am not!" Sheila yipped, stamping her foot to emphasize her point. "They have been my favorite team for years! I've even got a jersey!"

"Of?" Fox asked.

Wolf suddenly started glaring at her. "I swear if you say either Sidney Kane or Patrick Crosby, I'm—"

"No," Sheila interrupted. "I've got the goalie, Henrik Price."

"Wow, of course," Wolf rolled his eyes.

"All right, okay, that's enough of that," Natalia interjected. "Fox, can you get the tickets?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Great, and can you get us a place to stay?"

Fox looked down at the floor. "Well, my brother lives in a nice apartment downtown. I don't think he'll have any problems with us staying—"

"Wait, hold up," Wolf interrupted yet again. "You have a brother?"

"Yeah…" Fox said slowly, as if to jog the lupine's memory.

"Who?"

"I never mentioned Todd to you?"

Wolf immediately scoffed. "Your family is so unoriginal with names."

"You're one to talk."

"Yeah, whatever," Wolf grumbled. "He younger than you?"

"Yeah, by four years. He's twenty-four."

"He married?"

Fox couldn't help but smirk. "Yeah, actually."

Wolf immediately barked out a taunting laugh. "Wow, way to get one-upped by your younger bro, runt. Guess my nickname for you can stay."

"Well—"

"I bet she's cute too," Wolf said tauntingly, crossing his arms. "Is she?"

Fox smiled back with a smug, knowing smirk, crossing his legs with an attitude of self-pleasure. " ** _He_** is adorable."

Wolf's smirk immediately dropped off of his muzzle. "Huh?"

The vulpine imploded with laughter at the lupine's expression of shock. "Who's got a one-up now?!" Fox questioned, choking through laughter.

"Wait," Wolf grunted, grabbing his forehead again. "Is your brother—"

"Yes, Wolf," Fox sighed, still chuckling to himself somewhat. "My brother is gay. Got a problem with that?"

"If I have to stay at his house, yeah!" Wolf moaned. "That's just disgusting."

"Nobody wants to hear your polarized opinion," Leon interjected. "If this is the best we have to do, then so be it. I've got no complaints."

"This actually might work," Adam remarked. "I can get behind this."

"I second that," Patrik added.

"Count me in," Sheila said happily. "If I get to be Foxie's date for this, then I'm totally up for this."

"Sheila, that was only to keep my parents from getting suspicious," Fox corrected. "Sorry, but that's all it was."

"Plus you're mine," Wolf added. "You're in my debt."

Sheila's ears drooped. "I know…"

Fox shook his head in Wolf's direction, then gave a wink to Sheila that the lupine didn't see. The husky let out a small grin in response.

"All right, since you all are so adamant about doing this, then let's do it," Wolf grunted, tossing a look in Fox's direction. "Grab your shit and let's hit it. Oh, and we are taking your truck. We can't fit everyone in mine."

"As long as I'm driving," Fox remarked.

"Fair enough," the lupine nodded. "Just follow me then. Our carrier is sitting comfy at an allied airfield, and we can get to Corneria in a day."

"Oh, by the way, you never told me you finally bought a carrier," Fox commented. "What is it?"

Wolf let a smirk crease his muzzle.

"You'll find out soon enough."

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[҉]

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 **P.S: Elarix, sorry, but this was so much easier to write than what I have to still do. I'm busy tonight, but I promise I'll have that last part ready by tomorrow. If I don't, you have permission to... ...force me to do something, I don't know. ...Maybe saying that was a bad idea...**

 ***Oh, almost forgot. Had to come back on and put this on real quick. Many thinks to K.S. Reynard for allowing me to use Scarlet. I'm sure most of you are aware of who she is by now, but if not, check out K.S's stories and check her out. Thanks again, bud! :)**


	4. Hiraeth

**A/N: Two quick things. First off, I feel like I need to make note that any topics from this that can be related to real-world scenarios is entirely coincidental. Yet, I will say that there is minor influence, but not enough to get all up in arms.**

 **Secondly, I will disclose that this next story arc, dubbed the "Subzero" arc, will be a collaborated effort between myself and the ever so lovely Elarix (yes, all the homo. ;)) because the gift I gave him for winning the one-shot contest last year he claims is way too much, so I gave him the option to even it up. These next three (?) chapters will be both of our work. Hope you guys are ready for that... :)**

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[҉]

 **Chapter IV — Hiraeth**

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 ** _Hiraeth — (n.){rough Welsh translation}  
A homesickness for a home to which you  
cannot return, or a home which maybe  
never was; the nostalgia, the yearning,  
the grief for lost places in your past._**

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[҉]

* * *

"You can't be serious."

"I'm afraid I am."

"Is that…"

"Yep. That's her."

"And you—"

"Picked her up when you put her down."

"You planned this, didn't you?"

"What if I told you it was all one sheer coincidence?"

"I'd say you're crazy."

"Start talkin', runt."

"You're definitely crazy."

"That is a two syllable title put on people by minds too dense to conform."

"I'm amazed at how well your vocabulary improved over these years."

"Diplomats get you to talk with a certain… _eloquence_ , because the gods above forgive that you sound like a complete idiot when you take the stage."

"About time somebody taught you something."

"Just shut up and get out of the car."

Fox snickered and slipped out of the passenger seat, turning around to see the other SUV and the two motorcycles pull up behind him. He then looked around at the distorted, arid surroundings, seeing nothing but a thin film of red-orange sand clouding close to the tarmac. Finally, he looked forward, staring with a slightly agape muzzle at the sight of an all-too-familiar mothership. Even with its appearance altered slightly, the iconic design and shape was still there, and although it now sported a new name under a new owner, he still couldn't help but smile at his pride and joy still operational.

The vulpine looked back through the windows of his SUV, seeing Wolf standing proud in the shadow of the _Great Fox—_ er, now called the _Vigilant_ by her new owner. He tapped a digit on the glass, momentarily getting Wolf's attention.

"You gonna gloat more or are we loading up?"

Wolf nodded and traversed to the back of the truck, Fox following. The lupine already had the back end open by the time the vulpine made it back, and was starting to grab a few of the many bags that had been stuffed back there.

"Got room for Foxie's truck?" Natalia spoke up, removing her motorcycle helmet and releasing the tidal wave of blonde locks in the process.

"Plenty," Wolf answered confidently. "Just worry about you and Powalski getting your bikes in there. Dahlstrom, Kajær; help get these bags out."

"Would it kill you to say _please_?" Adam whined.

"Yes, it would," Wolf countered with a smug smirk. "Just stick 'em in the spare room for now. We'll sort it out later. We might actually need them again when we get Stazac on board."

" _If_ , you mean," the blue jay added.

" _When_ , I mean," Wolf corrected. "Now, just worry about the gear. I'm gonna show our new addition his quarters."

Fox picked out his bag of belongings and slung it over his shoulders, nodding as Wolf stepped forward. They trudged along the sand-covered tarmac, creating a path with how their boots scattered the dust as they approached the gaping hangar bay. Inside were four Wolfen fighters, suspended from the ceiling with their cockpits aligned with the catwalk above. Two of the fighters looked like they haven't been launched in years, with a layer of dust and webbing clogging in each crevice. One looked in prime condition; polished, cleaned, and well maintained, while the other had a few scuffs and chips, but other than that looked brand new as well. Nevertheless, Wolf continued forward, not stopping until they got to the heavy airlock at the back of the hangar.

"Still looks as good as ever," Fox murmured, watching as Wolf swiped a card on the receiver next to the door, prompting it to split and retract into the walls holding it up. "You're taking good care of her."

"A merc's visual appeal will attract contractors," Wolf explained, the door shutting behind their tails once they passed through into the main hall. "Just think about it; would you rather hire a team with a run-down mothership or a team with a beauty like this?"

"Well, you gotta think about the crew inside," Fox explained. "It's kinda like that industrial rivalry between Aerospace Dynamics and Phoenix Industries. Even though Phoenix had a brilliant display and easily had the visual appeal, I chose ASD because they had the better equipment, even though their headquarters is set in an abandoned freight warehouse. I choose functionality over looks."

"Suit yourself," Wolf huffed, stuffing his paws into his jacket. "Everyone else would beg to differ. I've gotten a lot of people requesting my service, but many don't pay as much as the job demands. That's basically why I accepted Muzzin's deal as soon as I got it."

"And you accepted his ideas and morals once you saw the tag the job provided?"

"That doesn't matter once you get into this field," Wolf dismissively responded.

"How did I know you were about to say that?" Fox about scoffed. "What, was that whole word-vomit about Muzzin being a misunderstood politician just _his_ words that you regurgitated back to me?"

"Not entirely," Wolf gently elbowed the vulpine. "But, even though I'm biased for the payout, and would do anything to back my cause up to make it seem like the best idea, I really believe that what he's got planned is great."

"You sure it's not that money talking?" Fox said with slight skepticism.

"I may not be the most educated person in Lylatian politics," Wolf started.

"Not educated at all, if you ask me," Fox said under his breath.

"But I at least have the common sense to see that what he has planned is better than what's going on now," Wolf finished, a glare creeping onto his face. "Remember what I said about the visual appeal? People see that this will change everything, so they side against it. They fail to see that the system we have now is obviously screwed up beyond all recognition, and is visibly corrupt. I'm siding with him because I'm honestly excited to see him reshape the entire LHC."

"Are you secretly Muzzin's son?" Fox blurted out. "You sound just like him."

"Wouldn't that be something else?" Wolf chuckled. "Funny you say that, runt. No, I'm not biologically related, but here's your plot twist for the day: Victor is actually my stepfather."

"Your stepfather is Senator Muzzin?" Fox echoed in disbelief.

"My real father got a divorce when I was still young," Wolf relayed, turning down a different corridor. "I still hated that dick. Cost me and my mom almost everything. My first taste of mercenary work started when I was sixteen to try to support what little family we still had. Then word started getting out, so we had to flee. Sought asylum on Macbeth."

"I assume you met him there?" Fox asked.

"My mother—bless her soul—worked for a restaurant when Victor came in once. Two years later they got married. Say much about what went down that day?"

"Well now I know where you got your job from," Fox smirked knowingly. "And you say that I've got a terrible case of nepotism."

"Don't kid yourself, pup," Wolf butted in. "He didn't hand me anything. He made me work for it, and damn did he do a good job in doing that instead of handing me jobs. Getting my experience up, tightening my skills, and building a name for myself is what he wanted me to do before he entrusted me with his unorthodox campaign method. But, as good as he was at being a trainer, he definitely was that father figure I didn't have. When my mom died about four years ago, I was lost. But he helped me through it, just like your old man would to you."

Fox smiled. "So there is a bit of heart underneath all of that," he remarked playfully, poking at the lupine's orange undershirt.

Wolf growled and pushed his arm away. "Don't be going gay on me, McCloud."

"Is there something you don't like about gay people?" the vulpine blurted out.

"No, I just don't want you turning into your brother," Wolf moaned, pulling out another key card. "Is he, like, painfully gay?"

"Come again?" Fox questioned curiously.

"Is he _tolerable_?" Wolf deadpanned.

"Well, to me personally, yeah," Fox explained. "He's a little strange, but aren't we all in a way?"

"You better hope that he doesn't get on my nerves," the lupine grunted, swiping the card on the door he stopped at. It unlocked instantly, allowing him to push the door forwards and step inside, Fox following him in.

It was just a standard room; a single bed, small desk, and a tiny area nestled in the corner for the private bathroom. It looked exactly like Fox's room when he had control of the ship. In fact…

"Hey, this might be my old room," Fox commented, setting his bag down by the desk.

"It is," Wolf answered, a sly smile creasing his muzzle. "You're welcome."

"I would have guessed you'd jump on this because of the private bathroom," the vulpine stated, trotting up to the window next to the bed.

"Natty's got the other room with that, and the bathroom is nicer than this one," Wolf explained.

"Speaking of her," Fox started, sitting down on the bedside as he flicked his bushy tail into place. "Don't you think that referring to her and Sheila is a little degrading, calling them property and all?"

"So?"

"I just think it's—"

"Nobody asked your opinion," Wolf interrupted. "They're _my_ girls. They should be thankful that I'm giving them this opportunity."

Fox found it pointless to even continue the conversation, so he just stayed silent.

"We're taking off in a few," the wolf stated abruptly, grabbing the doorframe. "I'll let you know when we get to Corneria. Should only be a few hours if your FTL drive still works on her."

Fox smirked. "Cool."

With that, Wolf shut the vulpine's door, leaving Fox to unpack some of his belongings for the long trip.

* * *

[҉]

 **Caravan Palace — "Russian" {YouTube, Spotify}**

[҉]

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Hours after takeoff, Fox found himself lost in the view the large porthole in his room provided. Aside from inky blackness, bands of bright stardust and dots of faraway stars painted a brilliant picture that he couldn't help but become transfixed on. Views like this reminded him of the old days, where he would go to that same spot in between missions and stare out at the beauty that space provided.

He had already eaten with his new team, which was an interesting moment indeed. He felt out of place with the discussions, the humor was a bit—well, _much_ , rather—too dark for him to laugh at, and most of all he was stuck next to Wolf at the table, whose boisterously loud table etiquette made it impossible to enjoy a meal in his new team's company. Nevertheless, after he was done, he made his way up to his quarters and settled down for however long the jump from Papetoon to Corneria would take. He hadn't been to Corneria in so long that he honestly forgot how long it took.

Sitting alone made him think of his old team. How they might hate him if word ever got out that he joined his rival's team after supposedly hanging up his wings for good. He regretted his decision. Everyone from his family to his critics were right; he hung them up too soon. Living in retirement was way too boring, especially since he didn't have anyone to enjoy it with. Life as he knew it was swinging away without anything to take up his now plentiful amount of free time he found himself with.

Half of him wants to believe that he accepted Wolf's deal for the money, but the other half told him that it was the opportunity of excitement. He was given the opportunity to join up with what he wrongfully abandoned, and now that he was a part of it, he couldn't wait to get started. Getting used to the new team would definitely be a hassle, but who was he to complain? He got his life back in the most convenient of times.

The door to his quarters rustled as a soft knock fell upon his ears. Fox let out a silent sigh, internally praying that it wasn't Wolf, and picked himself up to trot over to the door. His hind digits clicked against the metallic floor, giving the person on the other side the hint that he indeed was answering the call, and after a few seconds, the door flung open.

Fox's eyes widened. "Sheila?"

"H-h-hi F-F-F-Fox," the copper husky said, her teeth clattering together as she tightened the thick blanket around her frame. "C-c-can I s-s-stay here for a bit?"

"What's up?" Fox asked concernedly.

"The j-jump drive t-t-takes up s-s-so much energy that s-s-some of our r-rooms loose heat. W-Wolf told me t-t-t-to ask you if I-I-I could stay here f-f-for the trip."

"Oh, sure," Fox said, and without a moment of hesitation the husky barreled right through him, tossing herself onto his bed and tightly curling the blanket up after her preliminary bounce on the mattress. Fox chuckled and resealed the door, walking back up to his bed that now had a large lump covered in a black and pink flannel pattern blanket on top.

"Thanks Fox," Sheila's muffled voice breathed. "I owe you for this."

"Don't mention it," Fox smirked. "Hey, wanna see something?"

Sheila's head—and about a third of her cinnamon colored hair—poked out of her makeshift blanket fortress and stared back at the vulpine. "What is it?"

Fox trotted over to his desk and pulled it out from against the wall. "This was my old room when this was still the _Great Fox_. Unless he did something, there should still be a little trick right here. Aaaand here it is."

Fox flicked a switch hidden away by the desk, and all of a sudden a faint hum emanated from beneath the floor. Sheila looked around the room, confused, but suddenly gasped when she felt a warm rush of air meet her face.

"My personal heater," Fox smirked, plopping himself down at the foot of the bed. "Solar powered, doesn't use any of the ship's generator power. Pretty cool right?"

"Uh, yeah!" Sheila yipped with a tone that implied Fox was stupid for even asking that. "This is awesome! I feel like I'm— wait, hold on. Just lemme scoot over to— there! Now I'm right in the draft. Ahhh this feels nice…"

Fox chuckled at her actions, watching as her full head of voluminous locks waved in the artificial wind. She casted the blanket aside, rolling over onto her back to bask in the warm jet stream shooting out from the ceiling with an agape muzzle, her tongue limply hanging out as well. No wonder she was cold; all she had on was a skimpy pale violet t-shirt and a pair of thick, incredibly soft pajama pants with basic white silhouettes of feral wolves dotting the deep magenta fleece material. After a few moments of letting the heat soothe her chills, she pulled out a pocket size device and held it with both her paws as she scooted up to rest her back against the headboard, intentionally sticking her bare hind paws in the stream of heat.

"I'm surprised Wolf didn't find out about this," Sheila commented, addressing the personal heating unit. "If he knew he'd be all over this room."

Fox laughed along softly, pressing his feet against the bed to push his back against the window. He glanced over, beginning to stare out of the large viewing area his room was blessed with, but after a few minutes Sheila piped up again.

"Something wrong, Fox?"

Fox sighed, accidentally fogging up the glass with his breath. "Just thinking about my old team," he answered distantly.

Sheila set her handheld game on the desk right next to the bed. "You miss them?"

"Yeah," Fox said, shutting his eyes. "It's really weird being on a mission and not having them on the team. It's times like this that I regret disbanding my team. I should've stayed with them."

The copper husky tossed her feet onto the ground and scooted up closer to the vulpine. "Do you wanna talk about it? I've always known that talking to a friend about something hard to talk about makes it easier on you."

"Thanks," Fox said, but immediately waved his paw dismissively. "But I don't want to talk about it. It hurts too much."

Sheila made a slight pouty face at him. "Come on, Fox, it's okay. I'm your friend here, right?"

"I just don't feel comfortable talking about it," Fox replied. "Maybe later."

Sheila's ears fell flat. "Okay. Sorry I bugged you."

Fox reopened his eyes to see Sheila scoot back away, pressing her back against the headboard again. He sighed again, glancing back out of his viewing window with an evidently distant stare. The light copper husky could see the reflection of stars and illuminated dust in his emerald green eyes, worrying her even more. With much more inflection, yet keeping her tone subdued enough to hide her urgency, Sheila flipped onto her knees and said, "Something's bothering you."

"I'm okay," Fox tried to assure, avoiding eye contact. "Just a little homesick."

"Fox…" she said gently, scooting up closer to him. "I promise; this'll just be between us two. Tell me what's wrong."

Fox sighed and let his head fall back against the reinforced glass. "I feel like I'm stabbing my friends and family in the back doing this. I lied to my parents to keep this operation under wraps, and now I'm abandoning my friends by getting into a different mercenary group when I told them I wouldn't come back."

Sheila slipped alongside him and rubbed her shoulder on his. "Well, you've got us, right?"

"I barely know any of you guys, aside from Wolf, and even at that my friends back in the Star Fox days were my friends for years," Fox nearly lamented, letting his shoulders and tail slump. "Not to be rude, but you guys don't know as much about me as the guys from Star Fox did."

"Well, we've got a while," Sheila smiled, gently wrapping her arm over his neck. "Do you want to start?"

Fox cocked an eyebrow. "Start with what?"

"Start with telling our stories, silly," she giggled, a friendly nudge following. "To get to know each other better. I've probably got your everyday generic and tragic backstory that everyone else has, so I want to hear from you first. Tell me about yourself."

The red fox slowly nodded his head. "Oh, uh, okay. For starters, even though I lived on Corneria for most of my life, I was born on Papetoon. Luckily, Corneria avoided war when I was only a few years old, because if they didn't, we would have moved to Corneria so that my dad could enlist in the CDF. Four years later I got my younger brother Todd, and then four more years after that, my sister, Paige. But, I remember this; I was only eight when I saw Paige for the first time, and she was really sick. We had to go to Corneria to go to a special neurologist because she had nasty problems she would have died from had we not."

Fox glanced out of the window again. "They cured Paige, but we stayed on Corneria because my father got in touch with some of his closest friends while we were there, and they managed to get the CDF's approval to start a mercenary company to try to stimulate the CDF's strength. It worked, so he decided to have us set up shop on Corneria. We lived just like any other family since then."

"How'd _you_ get into the mercenary scene?" Sheila asked curiously.

"My father passed on his team to me," the vulpine answered. "I was only eighteen when he passed the lead role to me, after I got experience, of course. We were the main offensive force in the Lylat Wars."

"I knew that," Sheila giggled, a wide smile plastering her muzzle. "I fought alongside you one mission."

Fox's eyes widened. "Wait, you did?"

Sheila nodded, shuffling her legs underneath her backside as her tail started to wag. "I was in the Husky Squadron's main division ever since I was nineteen. Pretty cool, right?"

"Really?" Fox gapped. "That's amazing! You must've been one hell of a pilot."

"I set a few records in training," she unconsciously boasted, flipping her hair for good measure. "Got promoted to lead pilot during the Lylat Wars when I was twenty-four and ran a bunch of reconnaissance missions. By now I would've been a Brigadier General with how fast I was moving up in the ranks."

Fox's lower jaw fell on the floor. "Wow."

"As for getting where I am now, there's kind of a strange story to that," she started, lowering her muzzle. "You mind if I retell?"

"Please."

Sheila took a deep breath. "We, the Husky Squadron, went out to investigate a claim of potential chemical weapons being manufactured on Fichina. We almost made it all the way around before we were ambushed by an extremist group. I went down hard, probably would have frozen to death if I had stayed there longer. But, after I blacked out, I woke up in an underground base, completely patched up and warm. Wolf told me it was he who found me and took care of me. He saved my life."

"Is that why he keeps calling you property?" Fox inquired.

"He feels like I still owe him for saving my life," the husky explained. "I can't leave or else he'll report me to the CDF for treason, and with as bad as it was—seemingly faking my death and all—I might be locked up for the rest of my life, or maybe worse. I can't leave."

"But you shouldn't let Wolf treat you like an object," the vulpine pointed out.

"I can't rebel against him either," she added. "I have to do what he says, or I'm gone. I've been lucky to get away from sleeping with him, but it's still scary. I can hardly sleep at night because I'm afraid he might rape me while I'm sleeping. I can't tell him no because he'll turn me in, and I have no say in the matter."

Fox shook his head. "It still doesn't give him a right. You're better than being a prisoner to his needs. Wolf needs to see that you are naturally gifted, and shouldn't belittle you to a mere slave. I would never do that to my team."

Sheila just started back at him with wide sky blue eyes. A small grin formed on one side of her muzzle as her eyes began to gloss over. Fox cocked his head at her, prompting the husky to let out a small hiccup as a single tear formed in her right eye and slipped down her cheek.

"That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me," Sheila cried, lunging forward and locking Fox into a rather strong hug. Fox ' _oof'_ ed in surprise, more because of the hidden strength the husky possessed, but, after taking a few moments to regather his bearings, he tentatively slid his arms around her and gave her that reassuring touch. Within moments, Sheila essentially melted into the embrace, letting out a bursting levee of emotions as she clung onto the vulpine with an almost possessive grip.

Fox gently rubbed her back as the tears continued to flow. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get you worked up."

"No," Sheila interrupted hoarsely, peeling herself out of Fox's shoulder. Quickly clearing her throat and tossing her hair back into place (for the most part), she continued, "No, I'm… really glad you said that. I was beginning to think that Wolf was the only one that… _tried_ to care, ya know? It's nice to hear another voice."

"Well, what are you gonna do about him?" Fox asked. "If his threats are true, you can't tell him off."

"What do _you_ think I should do?" the husky questioned right back, starting to become flustered. "I mean, you're right, I can't tell him off, but I'm really getting tired of his belittling treatment."

"Well, maybe try to be a little rougher," Fox suggested. "Wolf expects you to not put up a fight. Maybe if you can get under his pelt little by little, he'll start to give you space. That's what I did with my father, and in showing him that, he made the connection that I was beginning to show signs of a true leader. He probably wouldn't have given me the rights to Star Fox had I not shown that little defiance."

"You really think that'll work?" she whispered, her eyes growing wide again.

"If it doesn't, I'll stick up for you," Fox added. "Wolf may not show it much, but he respects me. He wouldn't have given me this offer if he didn't. I can maybe knock a little sense into him."

Sheila's smile grew wider and wider. "Thank you so much," she said, pulling Fox into yet another hug. Chuckling sheepishly, Fox weakly returned the friendly gesture. Yet, as soon as he tried to pull away, Sheila tightened her hold and flung herself backwards, taking the vulpine with her. Fox yelped in predominant shock when he fell back and immediately tried to pull himself up, but Sheila quickly clamped her arms around him and didn't allow him to even make the slightest attempt to get up.

"Why?" Fox groaned, wheezing with how much pressure she was applying to his chest. "Sheila, ow!"

"You're so soft," Sheila squealed somewhat boisterously, pressing her face into Fox's cheek fluff. "And so cute too."

Fox felt the tips of his ears burn. "Uh, thanks?"

Sheila just giggled, nuzzling her muzzle into his neck as her vice grip managed to tighten even further. "This is comfy…"

 _Jeez, my mom was right about huskies being affectionate_ , Fox thought to himself, barely able to breathe with the pressure on his chest. _She's gonna kill me. I'm literally going to die from a hug. I survive a nasty war, get shot at hundreds of times, almost manage to get my tail blown off, and what to I die to? A freakin' tall-ass husky with a truck-full of hair hugging me until I suffocate._

"You're not gonna let go, are you?" Fox hoarsely whispered.

"Not a chance," Sheila giggled innocently, seemingly unaware of the fact that she's crushing her prey. "I'm staying like this until we land."

"Well, can I at least get more comfortable if I'm gonna be here for a few hours?" Fox pleaded, desperately gasping for air.

"Swear?" Sheila said seriously, pressing her nose against his cheek.

"Yes, I swear," Fox whined at the wet sensation on his face. "I can't breathe."

The husky released her grip, allowing Fox to gasp for air, sequentially starting up a coughing fit in the process. He took a sip from his water bottle sitting next to his backpack to kill off the cough, then laid back down and braced himself for her vice grip. Yet, he was pleasantly surprised when all she did was lazily lay her arm over him and snuggle up to his furry neck like before.

"Better?" she breathed into his ear, causing it to violently jerk around. She giggled, letting out another breath to make his ear twitch once more. "Oh my gods that is adorable. Fox, your ear is all spazzy."

"It tickles," he admitted, disbelieving how degrading his situation looked. _Good gods above, when will she stop? I feel like I'm turning into a pile of mush._

"I never expected the great Fox McCloud to be such a teddy bear," she giggled childishly, putting a bit more force on her half-assed hold on the vulpine.

 _I want to go home_ , Fox deadpanned in his mind. _Enough of this floof. I feel like I'm being raped. Oh my gods—and now she's touching my tail. I'm gonna scream. She's definitely worse than Fara was._

"And your tail is so SOFT!" Sheila yipped right in his ear, causing him to flinch in pain. "Okay, that's it. I'm not sleeping alone again."

 _For the love of—_

"Fox, I don't care what you say, but you're my boyfriend now," Sheila blurted out, again burying her face into Fox's neck fluff. "You're my Foxie now, just so I can snuggle with you."

 _You have got to be—_

"Do you mind if you take your shirt off? I wanna feel how fuzzy you are."

 _FFFFUUUUUUU—_


	5. Subzero (I)

**Elarix's A/N: Well look who showed up. Big surprise, I know. I guess after I finished my first stint with Sheppard, I realized just how addicted I was to making fun of him. Welcome one and all to round 2 of roasting Sheppard!**

 **Sheppard's A/N: Ain't this just a kick in the teeth. I get recruited to write an arc of Elarix's** ** _Hunting Party_** **, and it takes us almost an entire month for each chapter. I bring him on for** ** _Another Station_** **, and we get the first chapter done in less than a week. Granted, I was sick then, but still. That doesn't seem fair.**

 **Anyway, fellas, Elarix is on board for the next three chapters, and I probably will regret my decision in doing so very, very soon. I apologize in advance for the content. Take care, and enjoy!**

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[҉]

 **Chapter V** ** **—** The Second Station: Subzero [Period One]**

[҉]

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 ***1st Intermission***

 **Rage Against the Machine — "Bombtrack"  
Foo Fighters — "Savior Breath"  
letlive. — "Muther"**

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[҉]

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The next day, Star Wolf landed the _Vigilant_ on Corneria—well outside the urbanized area of the main city. To avoid law enforcement completely, they landed in a well-forested wildlife reserve more than twenty miles outside the capital. From there, they piled into Fox's SUV and tanked the long drive to downtown Corneria City.

Within the next hour, Fox had driven the car through the massive skyscrapers and clustered buildings of Corneria's capital to the Space Dynamics Center, an arena aptly named for its sponsor, and because Elarix does his goddamn research about hockey.

Just barely finding an empty space in the crowded parking lot, Fox parked his truck and allowed the members of Star Wolf to disembark. They stepped out into the street in front of his SUV, taking stock of their team. Every member was disguised to some extent; Fox, Natalia, Adam, and Patrik all wore civilian clothes, effectively concealing the true nature of their occupations. Wolf took it to the next level, however; he wore a long brown trench coat that reached his ankles, a floppy western-styled hat that hid his brow, and a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes.

"Uh, Wolf?" Fox said. "Isn't that taking it a bit too far? You look like you're about to rob a bank, if I'm honest."

"My face could be all over Corneria, pup," Wolf explained through gritted teeth, barely moving his lips. Glancing between the street lamps that lit the parking lot, he continued, "I can't risk anyone spotting me—or Leon, for that matter. The feds have our profiles down to a T, you know."

"Hey, Fox, enough with Wolf. How do _I_ look?" Sheila asked giddily.

The vulpine turned to look at Sheila, and was once again reminded of her ridiculous outfit. "That's uh... real nice, Sheila."

The husky was completely decked out for the sports event, as if she had been prepping for it her whole life. She wore a white jersey lined with black and red bands—a jersey much too large even for someone of her height. The front of the shirt bore the Major's logo, while the back displayed "Price" and the digits "31" in black lettering. The jersey would have been completely acceptable on its own, but Sheila decided to go all out for her team, smearing their colors across her face with paint and wearing a team-decorated ski cap on her head. Finally, to top it all off, she even insisted on carrying a large foam hand with one finger extended that proudly proclaimed, "You're number one!"

"Ugh, Sheila," Natalia grimaced, covering her eyes. "The idea is to _not_ attract attention, or didn't you get the memo?"

Rushing to Sheila's defense, Fox said, "Actually, she's got the most convincing disguise out of all of us. With a wardrobe like that, no one would suspect she was a mercenary; she looks like any stereotypical fan. You all could learn a thing or two from her."

The coyote folded her arms and huffed indignantly. "At least _I'm_ not bandwagoning off whatever team's popular at the moment."

"Lol: you're totally right," Kajær agreed.

Patrik raised his fist threateningly over the blue jay's head, deadpanning, "I thought I told you never to say that again."

In response, the blue jay cowered back and raised his hands defensively. "Wow, okay, no need to get all shitty about it. If it wasn't for the money, I would be so done with this team."

"What about you, Leon?" Fox asked. The chameleon was still in the front of the SUV, though he had shifted over to the driver's seat after the team piled out into the street.

"Er, no, I'm afraid I'll sit this one out," Leon intoned.

"Aw, what's the matter Leon?" Sheila pouted. "You're not a big hockey fan? Come on; you'll love it! If ice skating sounds too feminine for you, most of the game is actually fist-fights and brawls between teams, and people get beat up, and there's lots of blood and flying teeth and, and—"

"No, no, I couldn't," Leon repeated, shaking his head desperately, his eyes screaming at the rest of the team for help.

"Just try it for five minutes, please?" Sheila begged, giving the chameleon puppy eyes that would have melted Andross's heart. "I'll even let you use my ticket... but only for like, five minutes, and then it's my turn again!"

"Let the lizard be, Spitz," Wolf ordered, coming to Leon's rescue. The entire time Sheila was gushing, the chameleon had been slowly sinking down in his chair beneath the viewing range of the window, and even had a finger over the button to roll his window up if it came down to that.

"We already talked about this," the canid went on. "We only have enough tickets for ourselves, and we need Leon to be ready with McCloud's car in case something goes wrong. Plus, Leon was never good with crowded areas. Too many people."

Fox nodded knowingly. "Oh. Social anxiety, huh?"

Wolf smirked beneath his sunglasses. "Nope. The temptation to dismember things just overpowers him in large crowds."

Fox blanched. "Oh..."

"Well, come on already," Sheila said, grabbing onto Fox's shirt sleeve with the force and strength of a world-class athlete. "We don't want to miss the game!"

Fox let the hyper-active canine drag him over to the center's front entrance, with the rest of Star Wolf trailing behind the couple. They fell into a long line in front of the arena's doors, waiting their turn to get their tickets checked. While Sheila gushed in Fox's ear about her favorite players' stats, the vulpine couldn't help but notice Wolf's paranoia. The lupine constantly looked over his shoulder at the people standing in line behind them, and buried his muzzle in the flaps of his trench coat whenever security officers strolled by.

When it came time to scan their tickets, Fox stepped forward and offered the ticket master his and Sheila's slips of paper. Once through, they turned around and waited for the rest of Star Wolf to follow. Natalia, Adam, and Patrik were visibly nervous as their tickets were scanned, but Wolf had the worst reaction of all. He fumbled with his ticket, paws shaking as he handed it to the ticket master, then swiftly stooped over to pick the slip of paper back up when he inevitably dropped it. To his relief, he didn't draw the attention of a group of Cornerian police officers conversing nearby.

Chuckling, the ticket master scanned his slip and handed it back to the lupine. "Don't worry, sir; the crowd in Corneria City isn't a particularly violent one. I'm sure you won't get wrapped up in any fist fights... even if you don't side with the Corneria City Majors." And he jokingly glared at the canid.

"Er, yeah, thanks." Wolf straightened his hat after bending to pick up his ticket and hurried on, catching up with the rest of his team.

Fox smiled condescendingly at Wolf. "What was that!?"

The lupine cleared his throat, looking around nervously. "Uh, what was what?" he echoed as if to relieve the embarrassment.

"You were sweating _bullets_ back there!" Fox exclaimed. "I have never seen you so scared before! And they were just checking your tickets!"

"Ah shut up, runt. At least I have the courage to pick up jobs well outside what the law finds acceptable for mercenaries."

But Fox wasn't about to let it go; for once he had found something to make fun of Wolf with. "Whatever you say, Butterfingers."

"The boss has the right to be worried," Patrik grunted blankly, slowly strolling by towards the direction of their seats. "We aren't exactly buddies with the CDF, and if that staff member recognized us, we'd have to call this whole thing off and abandon ship. You wouldn't want that to happen, now would you?"

"Heck no," Fox agreed. "Not after I bought the four of you tickets. All four of you tickets..." He cringed when he tasted the phrase on his tongue. "You know I'm out over 4k because of this?"

"Relax, pup," Wolf said as he rested a paw on Fox's shoulder. Ironically, behind his blacked out sunglasses the lupine's eyes were darting from security cam to security cam. "We'll make it up to you after we complete this operation. Muzzin isn't exactly Hobo Joe off the streets. He can pay up."

"Well, if you say so... _boss,_ " Fox mockingly answered, following the malamute towards their seats.

The six of them then cautiously, yet calmly trotted through the never-ending stream of fans sporting the Majors' red and black in an attempt to get to their seats before the game started. Fox noticed on the screens dotting the outside wall that the Majors' game was being played against the Larkinge Disciples, probably the second-best team in the league behind the Majors themselves. He groaned internally, knowing that it would most likely be a sold out crowd in attendance.

Thankfully, when they arrived at their seats—if they could be called seats—the game hadn't started yet. They had managed to buy six seats in a row in the back of section 117. The problem was, they were standing room only tickets.

At the head of the line of team members, Fox called out, "Alright. Here are our spots."

Confused, Wolf looked down at the ground, noting the neon-colored duct tape that designated their standing areas, along with the stainless steel ledge that lined the back of the last row's seats. Swiftly looking back up and glaring at Fox, he hisses, "You got us _standing room_ tickets!?"

"Well what kind of tickets would you expect to find left the day before the game?" Fox shot back. "Center ice?"

"4k my ass!" Wolf barked. "Come on, how cheap were these tickets really?"

"As long as we're on the subject or your ass, haven't you been sitting on it all day? First on our way over here on the _Great Fox_ —er, I mean the _Vigilant—_ and then we drove for an hour after that. Tell me the truth; don't you want to give your butt a bit of a rest?"

"I swear to god, McCloud—"

"Woooohoooo!" Sheila cheered, suddenly jumping up between them and waving her foam finger wildly about. "Gooooo Majors!"

"Ugh, dammit Sheila!" Wolf tightened the flaps of his trench coat around his face and peered distrustingly around the arena. "You're going to blow our cover!"

"And could you lay off of her for one minute?" Fox chided Wolf. "She's just trying to have fun. Your highest priority should be finding Scarlet in the crowd."

"Fine," Wolf sighed. "As long as you'll shut up. Kajær, Dahlstrom: see if you can—"

"Already on it, boss," Patrik answered blankly.

Wolf and Fox turned to look at their teammates; both the malamute and blue jay were holding pairs of binoculars to their eyes, scanning the crowded stadium for the red vixen. In any other situation, Scarlet would be easy to spot; with her brilliant red fur, she would stand out in any crowd. Yet, with the red team colors interspersed with the hockey fans, finding her would be more difficult than usual.

After a few seconds of scanning the crowd, Kajær abruptly wolf-whistled and elbowed Patrik. "Saaaay, get a load of that cardinal chick. Damn, that's a fine rack!"

Still staring through his binoculars, Patrik asked, "Do birds even have breasts?"

"What!?" Adam exclaimed. "Of course they do! What fun would we have if our babes didn't have boobs?"

"I don't know, man," the malamute continued, adding enough tone into his voice to imply he was still interested, yet in all honesty he couldn't care less about the situation. "I just don't think birds have breasts. It's not anatomically correct. Think about it; you guys aren't mammals, and you don't feed your kids milk. So, why would your women need boobs?"

Kajær shrugged. "I dunno. Why do all guys have nipples?"

"Hmm," Patrik hummed. "Touché."

"And besides," the blue jay went on, "Haven't you ever heard of the red-breasted nuthatch?"

"That just refers to the plumage on their chests," Patrik countered. "I'm not a biology major, but I still know that."

"Alright, then what about blue tits, willow tits, and marsh tits? How do you explain those, huh?"

"I don't think those are the same kind of tits, Adam," the canine said, withholding a chuckle. "Plus, what kind of idiot would name their species after their sexy bits? What, do people call my species Fichinan boobies or tundra dicks? I didn't think so."

"Look, this would all be solved if you just looked at the chick," the blue jay huffed. "She clearly has boobs."

"I'm going to assume this woman's fictitious until I see her _and_ her boobs with my own eyes. What section is she seated in?"

"Uh..." Adam swept his binoculars to the side, looking for the section number. "112. See her?"

"I don't see..." Patrik trailed off, frowning. With a deadpan tone that questioned his sarcasm, he blurted out, "Those are just implants."

At that moment, Fox's phone vibrated in his pocket. He immediately whipped it out and unlocked the screen, revealing a text message from Scarlet he had just received.

"What is it? What's it say?" Wolf asked, worriedly.

"Uh, it's just from Scarlet," Fox answered calmly. Silently, he read the message to himself.

 _I'm in section 232. Can see u and ur friends. Let's meet during 1st intermission_

"I don't think we can see her from this angle," Fox explained, craning his neck. "But she wants to meet with us during the first intermission."

"Good," Wolf huffed, letting out a sigh. "The sooner we can get out of here the better. Every second we stay is just one more chance someone will recognize us."

Fox's phone buzzed again. He looked down at it.

 _B careful messaging back; my phone is on vibrate and I don't hav any pockets. U no where it is ;)_

Quietly and coolly, Fox tapped through a few menus until Scarlet was once again blocked.

"I hate Scarlet sometimes," he deadpanned.

"Why?" Adam asked. "There bad blood between you two?"

Fox shook his head. "No, she's just… the walking definition of a rash decision."

"Dare I ask why?"

Again, the vulpine just shook his head. "You'll find out soon enough."

"She sounds interesting," Natalia piped in, poking up alongside Fox.

"Oh, she is," Fox was all too quick to answer. "She's extremely interesting."

"In a good way, I suppose?"

"Depends. On one hand, all she believes in wearing are these tight, form fitting catsuits that look like they're straight out of a porn magazine. On the other, she's… well… let's just say that she's not appropriate for kids… or young adults for that matter."

Natalia smirked. "Understood."

The team stayed silent all throughout the team introduction and Corneria's national anthem, more out of security rather than respect for most of them. The only noise that came out of any of the six of them was Sheila howling and cheering during the introduction. Nevertheless, while the surrounding fans packed into the seats roared and screamed in anticipation of the opening faceoff, both Fox and Wolf rested their elbows on the stainless steel ledge sitting comfortably behind the rows upon rows of seats. The view wasn't the greatest, and the fact that they didn't have actual chairs made it impossible to enjoy the game, but Fox knew well that they weren't there to watch. The away team won the draw, slowly bringing the fans' noise down to tolerable levels. As soon as Fox could hear himself speak, he shuffled his feet, cocking his body away from Wolf as he crossed his ankles.

"Not the greatest place to talk business," the vulpine remarked.

"I don't particularly mind it," Wolf responded, surprising Fox in a way. Never did he think Wolf would actually enjoy this setting, especially with such a secretive objective looming overhead. "Once the game starts, all the cameras are on the ice. We can relax for now, I guess; just so long as they don't crown Spitz the _fan of the game_."

"Don't you think someone'll overhear us?" Fox questioned, keeping his voice low.

Wolf chuckled, swaying his tail as he stared out at the ice. "I remember my first time operating above the law. It was terrifying, and I'll be damned if I said I didn't see myself in that same situation. Believe me, once you get a little confidence in this field, you'll start to loosen up."

Fox only nodded, continuously scanning his surroundings. "So, how're you gonna explain your fumble when we got in?"

"Did you not see the four Corneria City police officers standing right there?" Wolf retorted. "Those assholes have a damn database saved in their heads, and guaranteed I'm at the top of that flippin' list."

Fox let out a soft moan of realization. "Fair enough. Sorry for harassing you."

"S'okay."

The first whistle blew on the ice, stopping play and allowing an overused mainstream electronic song to sound over the systems as the players on the ice changed up.

"To answer your earlier question, no," Wolf added. "Have you ever been to a CHL game before?"

"Once, like, over five years ago," Fox answered. "And Fara took me, so we were up in the premium club seats with great food, drinks, and treated with the whole VIP package. I've never been down on ground-level seating."

"Oh, I see," Wolf said with a smug inflection. "Lettin' your rich girlfriend get you the nice seats."

Fox could've sworn he saw Sheila's head poke over Wolf's slouched frame, but he dismissed it and replied, "Well, at the time she wasn't; she just wanted to take me to a game since we were slow in the merc business. But yeah, Fara and I were off-and-on a thing for… well, ever since she convinced her dad to partner Phoenix Industries with Star Fox, and talked me into letting her join."

"Phoenix Industries?" Wolf scoffed. "I thought you didn't do business with them."

"I didn't, until Fara did that," Fox corrected. "Like I said yesterday, I was a main advertizer with Space Dynamics—kinda like this rink—'cause they made good stuff. But the only issue was that they weren't cheap, being an independent corporation and all, so by switching to Phoenix, we saved a lot of money. But, we lost reliability too. Most of our stuff had to constantly be repaired, which sapped up the money we saved by switching, and _then_ some."

Wolf chuckled once more. "So, what made you stick your dick in her?"

"Come again?" Fox blurted out, a bit louder than he should have. He waited until the few people that looked back at him turned away to watch yet another faceoff before he continued in a hushed voice. "What's it to you?"

"Call the cops on me for being curious," Wolf said with a tone of short-tempered sarcasm.

"I just wanna know why you're curious," Fox stated, a smug smirk appearing on his muzzle as he cranked his head around to face him. "What, you gonna record my story so you have new material to jerk off to at night?"

"Don't push it, runt," Wolf growled, batting at Fox with his tail, applying as much force onto the back of Fox's knee as the bushy appendage could give out, which actually was quite a bit considering that Fox had to grab onto the narrow ledge to keep himself from falling as a result.

"Sorry," Fox chuckled to himself, repositioning his feet as he leaned more of his weight onto that ledge. "But, anyway, Fara was the one that was hot for me, thank you. You haven't met her, have you?"

"Only seen her on the news," Wolf replied with mock interest. "I always thought of her as a snotty, ungrateful rich bitch with all of the interviews and pieces they do on her."

Fox impulsively swing out his left paw and hit Wolf's shoulder, to which the lupine didn't even flinch, or react for that matter. "She's _actually_ a very intelligent and sweet girl. She may flaunt that Phoenix last name and heritage, but she's one of the nicest people I've met."

"Then what's the deal with you going off-and-on with her?"

Fox sighed and let his ears fold back. "Well, she does have a bit of a temper once you get her going. And she's impulsive too, because you don't need to think too much into the future when you've got as much money as they do. Half the time I didn't even know what we broke up over, but if you gave her a few months she'd come crawling back."

Wolf shook his head. "I wouldn't be able to deal with that. If I actually went out with women, I'd have to mix it up every once in awhile, or I'd go... _insane_."

"I thought you were about to say gay," Fox subconsciously remarked, immediately slamming his lips shut.

Wolf gave him a nasty glare out of the corner of his eye.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," Fox added in the midst of silent laughter.

"Don't even get me started," Wolf grumbled.

Fox looked back at the rink, watching as one of the referees escorted a home player towards the penalty box, with the player passionately trying to plead his case with flamboyant gestures and slightly audible foul language, but to no avail. As the away team—with the man advantage—lined up for yet another draw in their offensive zone, Fox got Wolf's attention with a quick bat of his tail to his behind.

"And what did I tell you about going gay, McCloud?" Wolf snapped his teeth together. "Touch me there again and I'm gonna use your tail as a scarf."

Fox lifted his eyebrows. "Okay, what do you have against them? Is there something I'm not getting?"

Wolf shuddered slightly and shuffled his feet. "Just the thought of it is disgusting to me. I mean, how can someone with a dick feel hot for someone else with a dick? I just don't understand that."

"My brother said it was a lot more than that," the vulpine interjected. "It's more than just an attraction, so to say. There's years of friendship between people like that. Todd was best friends with his now-husband for five years before he felt that attraction."

Fox was cut off by a series of whistles and a huge roar of cheering. Both canids looked down at the ice to see two opposing players flip the gloves off of their hands and grab each other's jerseys. The home player, a large alsatian, was the first to start throwing punches while the away player, a feline of some sort, did his best to try and protect himself.

Wolf started clapping and cheering them on. "Yeah! Kick his ass!"

Seemingly obeying the lupine's command, the shepherd started overpowering the smaller feline, pushing and dragging him around the center of the ice to try and knock off his balance, while the feline clung on and tried to land a few punches. The shepherd eventually got the upper hand, landing an uppercut so powerful that the feline's helmet popped right off of his head. Finishing the cat off, the home player pulled the feline's jersey over his head, starting an onslaught of punches that made the crowd explode in howling cheers. After a while, the canine pulled the opposing player down to the ice, prompting the officials to intervene and split them up.

"You wonder why I said I don't mind this?" Wolf asked rhetorically, raising his voice over the loud cheers of the surrounding fans. "I have to say that I like this just because it's the only sport that you can beat the shit out of someone you can't stand and only have to sit in a box for five minutes as punishment. Hell, I'd do it for a living if I knew how to skate."

Fox laughed and gave Wolf a gentle elbow. "I'd watch you fall on your ass any day."

"Bitch, please," Wolf scoffed in apparent disgust.

"It isn't easy if that's what you're thinking," Fox interjected. "You gotta stand on a fraction of an inch of steel on ice while five other guys try to beat you to death with sticks. Oh, and for skating, it's harder to stay on your feet the more out of shape you are."

Wolf shot the vulpine another nasty stare. "You wanna test me, McCloud? I'll fight your ass right now to show you I'm in shape."

"Round isn't a shape you should shoot for."

"You know what, runt, I'm—"

Wolf was cut off by an explosion of cheers, followed by a shrill, deafening goal horn, signaling the home team just shot one into the back of the net. Both canids abandoned their hostility to see the celebration taking place on the ice, and the sea of black and red in the stands that were boisterously proclaiming their undying affinity for their home team. Behind Wolf from Fox's perspective, Sheila was howling along, energetically jumping on her toes like she was celebrating with the team itself on the ice. Fox smirked at Wolf, who just rolled his eyes when he caught on to what the vulpine implied to him with that simple expression.

Once the cheers died down after the home announcer loudly retold the goal scorer's name and number, Fox shifted again, leaning more towards Wolf as he spoke.

"What were we talking about again?"

Wolf shrugged his shoulders, continuing to stare at the ice. "Something about you and Fara. Truth be told I couldn't care less about that, so I'm switching the topic to something more relevant."

"Good," Fox said, swishing his tail in apparent interest. "Hopefully something about this mission."

"Right," Wolf responded, putting most, if not all of his body weight into leaning on the metal ledge. "So, like I said, this is gonna require a lot of interplanetary travel, so we can't start anything until we clear our names off. Even so, we still gotta be careful. They might have specialists right on our tails, studying our every move, but clearing our names will make it easier to get around; maybe even slow those guys down or get them off our backs for a bit. Hopefully Vince can clear just the CDF's main database. He probably knows that there's more than one file on all of us. Anyway, as soon as we do that, we can start our first actual operation."

"I'm listening," the vulpine breathed.

"Muzzin's deal says that we need to do some, quote, "unorthodox manipulation", to push a little bit more following into his campaign," Wolf relayed. "His counter-attacks on his competition have backfired against him, so he's desperate for a break. He wants to avoid turning the campaign into a vendetta. Rather, he wants us to get involved. He wants us to create situations where his competition won't have a good enough reaction, where he can win the argument and gain some steam."

Fox blinked. "So we're basically terrorists."

"Not exactly," Wolf corrected. "We're simply hired guns, paid to create a little chaos that only one man—my stepfather—can potentially fix."

Again, Fox blinked, this time contorting his muzzle into a skeptical expression. "That… basically _defines_ terrorism."

Wolf huffed and pivoted his body, leaning on the ledge as he faced the vulpine. "Listen, you're an underground mercenary now. You don't have to abide by the law anymore. Scratch that, _don't_ abide by the law anymore. You need to harden up and stop acting like it's your god-given duty to be Mister Lylat."

"It isn't, and never was," Fox retorted. "I'm sorry that I grew up in a world where breaking the rules got you in trouble. It's gonna take a lot more to get me to do any of this without unconsciously hesitating every time I try to do something."

"Well you better learn fast," Wolf spat, turning towards the ice again.

"Ladies, you're both pretty," Natalia remarked, slipping between the small sliver of space the two canids left. Fox tried to back away out of impulse, but the coyote was quick to grab his arm and pull him back in. "What'cha guys up to?"

"Tellin' McCloud he needs to not be a pussy when we start getting physical," Wolf gruffly answered. Natalia snorted and started giggling, getting a curious glance from the lupine. After a moment or two, Wolf suddenly went wide-eyed and about stumbled backwards. "Not like that, you sicko."

"And you call yourself straight?" Natalia inquired with an all-too-confident smirk.

"Can we just stop with the labels?" Fox impatiently interrupted, gently pushing the coyote out of the way. "Hey, I don't have a problem working for money, alright? What I do have a problem with is my new homophobic misogynist boss that treats you girls like property."

Both Sheila and Natalia gasped, with Wolf rounding out the reactions with a low growl.

"Stay out of my personal life," Wolf snapped, keeping his voice low. "You wanna treat me like a boss, then fine. You're nothing more than an expendable employee to me then. But if you actually want to get on my good side and not worry about whether or not I stab you in the back when you least expect it, then give me some damn respect, understood?"

Fox let a breath tainted with subtle anger leave his nose. "Fine."

Wolf let a pleasured smirk crease his muzzle, setting his arm overtop Natalia's shoulders. "Good."

Seconds later, another horn sounded, this one quieter and less obnoxious, signaling the end of the period. A happy little organ chime sounded throughout the building as the benches cleared and funneled into the tunnels towards their respective locker rooms. As the announcer relayed a message about saving money by buying upcoming playoff tickets in bulk, Fox looked over to Wolf.

"Now?"

"Wait," Wolf stated. "Wait 'till people start walkin' around. That cover of people is what we need to stay under the radar."

Fox nodded, watching as the bright overhead lights dimmed down almost completely, darkening the ice while leaving the area for the fans well lit. As the dual zambonis painted in the Majors' red and black slowly crawled out from the large gate on the opposite end of the ice, a quiet and quickly paced bass guitar riff started playing.

"So, how're we splitting this up?" Fox asked. "Obviously we all shouldn't flock together to try to find her."

"Natty and I will go around the left side," Wolf explained. "You and Sheila can go the other way."

"You're putting me with Foxie?!" Sheila yipped happily. "Awesome!"

"Just don't make a scene out of it," Wolf added. "You still need to blend in."

"Got it," the husky affirmed, turning to watch the zambonis resurface the ice. Seconds later, the riff playing over the speakers progressively got louder, then suddenly exploded into a much more powerful chorus, so contagious that even Fox couldn't help but nod his head along too faintly. Sheila became much too occupied with the song playing over the loudspeakers to pay attention to Wolf's next sentence, or the rest of the conversation for that matter.

"Oh, and if you find Scarlet, bring her back to our spot," Wolf said, elbowing Fox for good measure. "Those two are gonna watch over us just to make sure that nobody is following. Right here is probably the safest place we got."

"And if you find her?"

Wolf pulled out his phone from one of his trench coat pockets. "I'll text you. Then get back here as soon as you can. We'll regroup once we get her, tell her our situation, and if we can get her on board, we bolt immediately. Good?"

"Sounds good to me," Fox said over the voice of the lead singer reverberating throughout the rink. "But what happens if something goes wrong?"

"You better pray that something doesn't go wrong," Wolf answered sternly. "But, if something goes belly-up, keep your eyes peeled. We'll need to get out as soon as possible if anyone gets caught. I've got Leon on speed dial, so he'll be ready if we need to get out. You just worry about getting Scarlet, okay?"

"Alright," Fox nodded, backing away from the standing area ledge. "Sheila, you ready?"

"Burn, burn, yes ya gonna burn!" Sheila sang along, oblivious to her surroundings as her head bobbed along with the beat of the song. Her full head of lengthy locks danced along with her nodding head, which all in all was quite a humorous scene.

" _Sheila!_ " Fox barked.

Sheila jerked her head over instantly, waving her hair in an inadvertent and unintentionally dramatic way as if she was a part of a shampoo commercial. "Yeah?"

"Come on, we need to get moving," he said, waving his paw towards himself. Sheila squealed softly, set her finger underneath the ledge, then chased after him.

She turned around, walking backwards as she told the rest of the team, "Bye you guys! See you later!"

"Good luck, Spitzie," Patrik muttered, watching as the duo trotted away towards the right side of the rink. He looked over just in time to see Wolf and Natalia walk off in the other direction, eyes peeled for their target. That left him and the blue jay alone in their section, and at first he thought he might have a little time to relax, but that presumption was proven wrong when Adam slapped his shoulder.

"Dude," the avian nearly squawked, then started an onslaught of weak slaps against the malamute's shoulder in a panicked, flustered way. "Dude, that cardinal chick is coming this way! What do I do? What do I do?"

"Pretend like you've seen a woman before," Patrik answered uninterestedly, finding the zamboni's movements across the ice more intriguing than Adam's predicament.

The female cardinal, as Adam said earlier, was indeed stacked, yet had a rather slim and slender frame. She looked confused and disoriented as she slowly walked along with the crowd, her eyes wandering all over the place. Eventually, she decided to walk over to the blue jay, expressing a warm smile as she approached.

"Excuse me," she started softly, yet with a calm demeanor. "Do you happen to know where section 122 is? I can't seem to find it."

"Yeah, it's, uh…" Adam started with a slight stutter. "It's on the other side of center ice, I think."

"Thank you," she grinned again. "Uh, my name's Zoe, by the way."

"Adam," the blue jay responded, gently taking the cardinal's hand in his own.

Zoe's eyes narrowed. "Wait, that's a Cornerian name, but… you're obviously Katinian."

Adam's eyes widened in shock. "Yeah, exactly," he exclaimed breathily. "Wow, you're the first person to say that to me. You know, most people—ignorant people—don't even realize those are two different things."

"And they don't care either," Patrik butted in.

Adam waved him off. "How'd you know?"

Zoe giggled adorably. "I studied abroad in Katina while I was in college. It was a beautiful place… filled with beautiful people."

Adam blushed and chuckled to try to eliminate his embarrassment. "Kinda like this rink, right?"

Zoe laughed dryly and looked off to the side. "Well, it was nice talking to you. I'll see you around," she said happily, waving as she backed away. Adam also said his goodbye, and once the cardinal was out of earshot, he turned around and faced Patrik with an admittedly goofy expression.

"Did you see that?" Adam questioned.

"Ew," was all Patrik said.

"She likes me, right?" Adam said, beginning to get excited and giddy just thinking about it.

Patrik stayed silent for a few moments, but eventually admitted, "Yeah, she's totally into you."

Adam pumped his balled hand into the air with a grunt of approval.

Yet, a few seconds later, Patrik continued in a completely toneless voice, "Just not as into you as she is into that guy's mouth."

Adam turned around slowly, suddenly finding himself seeing Zoe with her beak pressed against a large robin's face in the corner of the rink. His own face suddenly contorted into that of sheer disgust and overall disappointment as he couldn't muster the strength to look away from the cardinal's kissing.

"Yeah, he's definitely gonna fuck her later and she's _not_ gonna be thinking of you while it's happening," the malamute continued, fighting with himself to not let a smirk show.

Heartbroken, Adam turned back towards the malamute and sighed, "Dammit."

"Don't sweat it, buddy," Patrik grinned, patting the avian's shoulder. "Those breasts are definitely implants."

Adam sighed again and leaned up against the ledge, lowering his head into his makeshift fortress made out of his arms. "You're probably right..."

"But this raises another interesting question," Patrik mused, stroking his chin as he turned back to the ice. "How do birds even kiss?"

* * *

[҉]

* * *

The vulpine kept his head on a swivel, essentially scavenging the terrace and tunnels littering every other opening in an attempt to locate the scarlet vixen. All the while, while Sheila gave her best effort in assisting, she couldn't help but quietly sing along with whatever song started blaring over the speakers. The first song had ended—thank god—but to his dismay another rock song found its way into the rink, one that Sheila shamelessly expressed her love for.

About halfway through the song, as Fox slipped back through one of the tunnels, Sheila suddenly shouted "MINE!" in accordance with the song as it progressed into a howling guitar solo that rattled Fox's teeth.

"Sheila!" Fox shouted, cranking his head around. "Focus!"

"Sorry Fox!"

The vulpine sighed while shaking his head as he poked his muzzle out of yet another tunnel. He had to squint his eyes due to the sea of red and black in the stands, yet even so he still could not locate the vixen. The guitar solo slipped back into the vocals, and to his dismay he heard Sheila holler—

"BANG, BANG, BANG!"

"SHEILA!"

Slowly losing his patience, he glanced over the vantage point he had one last time, but instead of his eyes alighting on the fox he was searching for, they found two other vulpines who were just as, if not more familiar than Scarlet.

Turning around, he grabbed Sheila's shoulder and began walking back into the dark entrance gate. "Welp, no Scarlet here. Let's move on."

Shrugging his hand off, Sheila stopped. "What's wrong? You obviously saw _some_ one. Who was it? An ex? Do you have an ex? Huh? Huh!"

Fox waved his hand dismissively. "No, it's just my parents."

At Fox's revelation, Sheila's eyes lit up. "Your parents? Really!? Come on! Let's go meet them."

But before the energetic husky could run off, Fox caught hold of her sleeve. "Whoa there, turbo. I don't really want to deal with them right now."

"What? But I'd _love_ to meet your parents!"

"Yeah, well, we need to find Scarlet," Fox countered, beginning to sink back into the shadows of the entrance gate.

"Come on Fox," Sheila whined. "Introduce me to them! I _am_ your girlfriend, after all."

Fox held up a finger and clarified, "Temporarily."

"Oh, I'm not taking "no" for an answer!" And with that, Sheila impulsively pinched his vulpine ear and painfully lead him back into the arena.

"Ow ow ow, what the hell Sheila!?" Fox hissed as he bent his head at an odd angle to minimize the pain. His face reddened as he noticed the majority of the spectators they passed turn and stare at him, some even pointing and laughing.

Once they reached the row of seats Fox's parents were seated in, Sheila finally let go of his ear and shoved Fox forward, waiting excitedly behind his back. When James and Vixy saw their son, they both stood up and fought their way out of their row of seats to join him in the main aisle.

As if Sheila emasculating him on the way into the rink wasn't enough, Vixy immediately leapt forward and wrapped him in a suffocating hug, planting a tirade of kisses on the side of his muzzle. Fox nearly fell backwards into Sheila, but by the skin of his teeth he managed to keep his balance.

"Whoa, geez mom, do you have to be so affectionate!" he said, raising his hands defensively.

Pausing her stream of kisses, Vixy explained, "Well I have to make up for lost time; it's been a whole year since I last saw you!"

Coming to Fox's rescue, James pulled Vixy back and separated her from Fox. "Come on now, honey; don't embarrass our poor kit. He's got an image to keep up."

"Ugh, you men and your images!" Vixy complained, rolling her eyes. "Why do you have to wear those silly sunglasses even _inside_ the arena?"

Grinning slyly, James bent over and whispered in Vixy's ear, "Because, if any of these impressionable young women stared into my charming eyes they'd be completely hypnotized."

"Oh please!"

"It's true," James pressed, straightening back up and placing his hands on his hips. "It's how I landed you, after all."

At that moment, Sheila cleared her throat and nudged Fox in the small of his back. He grimaced at Sheila's touch, but finally gave in and stepped to the side, revealing his "girlfriend".

"Uh, mom, dad; I'd like you to meet Sheila."

With a warm glow on her face, Sheila bounced on her feet and waved happily. "Hiya! You must be Mr. and Mrs. McCloud."

James bowed slightly and took her paw, ceremoniously kissing it. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Sheila."

"Er, yes, quite," Vixy stumbled as she shook Sheila's paw. When she withdrew her own hand, she quietly slipped a small bottle of sanitizer from her purse and spread a healthy portion of it across her hands. She tried to pour a drop on James' paw as well, but he swiftly removed it, causing the sanitizer to splat on his shoe instead.

Hoping that Sheila didn't notice their exchange, James discretely coughed. "So, Sheila, Fox has told us _so_ much about you!"

"Oh my goodness, he has!?"

"Actually, no," James lamented. "We only just found out he had a special someone yesterday. At least he didn't wait until the day you two were getting married to tell us!"

Vixy placed a paw on James' shoulder. "Uh, dear, let's not rush these things, alright?"

Fox awkwardly scratched the back of his head, thinking of something off the top of his head. "I admit, we've only been going together for… roughly a month, so it kinda—ha ha—slipped my mind."

"Excuse me, Sheila, but do you normally shed this much?" Vixy abruptly inquired.

"Huh? What?" Sheila asked, looking worriedly about. "What's wrong?"

Vixy explained, "I mean, do all huskies shed this much fur? I only ask because I'm not familiar with your... _breed._ You see, foxes don't normally shed much unless—"

James gently elbowed his wife in the ribs, then quickly tried to save the conversation. "But you have such a beautiful coat, Sheila, I expect it would be worth any amount of trouble. And your hair is absolutely gorgeous! I swear I've seen you somewhere before... maybe on TV? A commercial for something?" And he tipped his sunglasses down to wink at her.

"Oh, stop it!" Sheila giggled, waving a paw at James. Fox however was furiously steaming by her side.

 _Is it just me, or does dad try to steal_ every _girl I bring back home?_

He wasn't sure if his father's flirting was much better than his mother's insensitivity, but at least it put Sheila in a better mood.

"I'm truly amazed at your catch, Fox," James added. "I bet you two have a lot in common. Judging by her outfit, she even likes hockey!"

"Doesn't everyone like hockey in a Sheppard fic?" Fox mumbled through gritted teeth.

Interrupting their conversation, Sheila's stomach growled like a caged lion. Blushing, the canine placed a paw over her mouth and stepped backwards. "Oh my! Excuse me. I haven't eaten anything since we made landfall."

"Don't you even feed your girl?" James chastised Fox.

"Can you cook?" Vixy asked unabashedly.

Placing his hands on Sheila's back, Fox gently pushed her up the steps towards the entrance gate. "Er, Sheila, why don't you run along and get some food?"

"Oh, thanks Fox! I think I'll hunt down some nice cheesy nachos. I'll leave so you all have a chance to get caught up with Fox in private."

Fox released a large sigh as Sheila waved goodbye and hurried up the steps, disappearing into the gaping maw of the entrance gate.

"I don't know about you, but I'd ship it," James ventured, crossing his arms.

"Well, she _is_ rather pretty... and she's got a nice personality," Vixy admitted, "But shouldn't you take a little more time, Fox? Aren't there plenty of other women out there you should consider?"

Shifting awkwardly on his feet, Fox looked from side to side. "Oh, like who?"

Holding her purse open and fidgeting with its contents, Vixy avoided Fox's eyes. "Well, maybe... Scarlet?"

Even at the mere mention of Scarlet's name, Fox felt his agitation begin to reach a crescendo. "But mom, Scarlet's my cousin!" he whined, hoping his mother would understand.

"Please Fox, she's your _fourth_ cousin," Vixy corrected.

Placing his hands in his pockets, Fox repeated, " _Fourth_ cousin? Wow, it seems like she gets more and more removed with each story she's in."

"Ah, but is it even fun anymore when she's _that_ distantly related?" James commented.

Rolling her eyes, Vixy hissed, "James!"

"Darling, I'm sorry, but I honestly think Fox made a good catch with Sheila."

"I thought we always agreed _Scarlet_ was the perfect match for Fox," Vixy reminded him. "I like Sheila and all, but she has _way_ too much energy."

"Scarlet's always good for a little something on the side," James assured her, grinning evilly.

"Ew, James, please," Vixy nearly hacked. "Don't bring that up again."

"What?" James chuckled shamelessly. "All I'm saying is Fox shouldn't expect new results from an old tool, if you get the drift."

"JAMES!"

"Uncalled for, I know. I'm sorry..."

"Such a pervert," Vixy huffed, crossing her arms and blowing a stray hair out of her face.

"Takes one to know one, honey," James returned, ruining any shot he had at an early reconciliation.

Getting into one of the McCloud family's famous arguments, James and Vixy continued heatedly discussing Fox's love life—without once asking for his input. All the while, Fox stood idly by, slowly boiling over with rage. He would have erupted, too, if he hadn't gotten a text message at that exact moment. Ignoring his mother and father for a few seconds, he glanced at his messages and saw the most recent one had been sent from Wolf. He read the message, and immediately a wave of relief washed over him, dissipating his anger.

 _Are you ok? Found scarlet; said you weren't answering her texts. Return to our... "seats"_

 _"_ You know, it was nice seeing you two again," Fox mumbled under his breath, attempting to back away, but to his dismay his father heard him and stopped him.

"Wait, Fox, hold on," he pleaded, gently setting a paw on his shoulder. "I'm sorry we got sidetracked, but I need to ask you something."

"What…?" Fox asked dryly, lowering his ears.

"Why did you need to see Scarlet so soon?"

Fox flushed. "Oh, well, I… uh, just wanted to, uh…" his eyes started wandering around the rink, as if something he could see could help him out in his situation.

James winked and leaned in closer. "Getting in touch with that little something on the side?" he cooed.

"For one, ew," Fox gagged. "For two, Sheila wouldn't like that. At all. And three; all I wanted to do was let her know of my status so that she didn't always assume I'm single, ya know? I'd rather not have her text one night and have it be really bad if Sheila saw. You know how she is."

James nodded knowingly. "Oh, okay. I understand. Heh, it's for the better, no?"

"I guess so," Fox answered distantly, sparing another glance to his phone screen. "Well, it was really nice talking to you two again, but I should be getting back to Sheila before she blows all of our travel money on popcorn and nachos."

James smiled and wrapped his arm around the vulpine in an improvised hug. "Thanks for meeting up with us again, Fox. And thanks for introducing your _special lady_ to us."

"Just be careful around her, m'kay?" Vixy warned somewhat sternly, also giving Fox a warm embrace. "I love you two together, but don't do anything you or her will regret."

James chuckled and gently backhanded her shoulder. "Aw, come on Vix; let the kids have their fun."

Vixy just shook her head and backed up. "Well, sorry if I think they should think about their future before getting serious."

"You sure didn't feel that way while we were dating years back," James smugly commented.

"Whose side are you on here?!"

Awkwardly backing away from his bickering parents, Fox waved one last time and said, "Have fun you two," before silently slipping away, setting course for his seat.


	6. Subzero (II)

**Callie's A/N: Oh, hai. It's me this time around. And, well, I need to explain why. I think you guys should know that Shep is taking a little break from the archive, from now until he can sort through a bunch of… life. But don't fret; he will be back, but even** ** _I_** **have no idea when. So, in the meantime, Elarix and I will take this over, and overall, you should see a lot more of me around in reviews and story updates and all that jazz. Oh, and keep Shep in your thoughts too. :)**

 **Elarix's A/N: I have a feeling Shep will be back soon. After all, he can never seem to get enough of me ;)**

* * *

[҉]

Chapter VI — Subzero [Period Two]

[҉]

* * *

*2nd Intermission*

Sick Puppies — "White Balloons"  
Rise Against — "Zero Visibility"  
Caravan Palace — "Lone Digger"

* * *

[҉]

* * *

Shouldering his way through the broiling crowd of hockey enthusiasts, Fox searched the concession stands for Sheila. It wasn't too difficult to spot her; eventually, he was able to zero in on a husky with what seemed to be a furry rug hanging down her back—at least from a distance it appeared to be. Sheila was standing in line in front of a food counter, eagerly awaiting her turn to get her paws on something edible.

Fox battled the rest of the way through the curved atrium until he was by his teammate's side. Once she noticed him coming, Sheila swiveled her head to face him, in the process whipping her wall of hair behind her and knocking over an owl in the adjacent queue.

"So, how'd your alone time with your parents go?" she beamed at him.

"Awful," Fox couldn't help blurting out.

Sheila's perpetual excitement seemed to vanish in an instant. "Oh... that's too bad. Why's that?"

Fox crossed his arms and slipped into Sheila's line. "Well, for one, my parents argued the entire time about who they wanted me to marry."

"Aw," Sheila sighed, obviously let down. "Which one of your parents didn't approve of us tying the knot?"

 _Gee, I wonder which one,_ Fox thought sourly. Then he was hit by the full implications of Sheila's comment. Stammering, the vulpine added, "Wait, us tying the knot? Whoa, whoa, hey now; let's not rush into this! Really, Sheila, you're starting to get on my nerves. Did you forget that this whole boyfriend girlfriend thing is only a cover for when we deal with my parents? And, well, now that they're out of the way, I think we may as well drop it. Going through that embarrassing ordeal with my parents was bad enough; I don't think I could go through it again with anyone else. You know, Sheila, sometimes you aren't really aware of yourself or how others around you feel. You just, well..."

As Fox went on, Sheila's ears slowly drooped, and her eyes began to get glassy as she pouted back at him. With shimmering puppy-dog eyes, she quietly asked, "I just... lack self-control? I'm too pushy? If that's the case, then I understand. I know, I'm sorry. It's the same thing Wolf always says—"

Recognizing the negative change in Sheila's mood, Fox quickly backpedaled. "Er, no, Sheila, I didn't mean that. You're just a bit, you know..." he trailed off, overcome with the sad look in the husky's eyes. Falling victim to the piercing gaze of the copper husky tugging at his heart strings, Fox sighed, "...Look, how about I buy you some nachos?"

Sheila's face lit up again, and her ears perked back up in an instant. "Really, Fox? You'd pay for my food? You don't have to, you know."

Fox held up a paw. "No, I insist. I want to do it."

As Fox whipped out his wallet and began digging through it, Sheila giggled, "Say, it's like we really are girlfriend and boyfriend now! I mean, you're paying for my food and everything, which is the way it works, I guess—"

At this last comment Fox grimaced, then shoved the money back into his wallet and slipped the leather case into his pants. "On second thought, you can pay for it."

"Oh, shoot, I did it again, didn't I?" Sheila giggled sheepishly. "Sorry, it's unconscious, I swear. Every time I think of something, I just, like, _have_ to say it, ya know?"

"Oh, I know," answered Fox, faintly rolling his eyes as Sheila ordered her food. A few moments later, Sheila held a plastic tray of nachos swimming in a mess of thick, liquid cheese. She honestly looked like a five-year-old girl with how excited she was with her tray of food. She exited the line, meeting back up with Fox on the wall next to the concessions, and while he messed with his phone, Sheila studied her food to find an opening to grab a chip without covering her paw in cheese.

"Okay, we need to get back," Fox announced.

"HOT!" yipped the husky, almost dropping her plate as she fanned her paw in the direction of her gaping muzzle.

"Calm down," Fox refrained from chuckling. "Breathe. You gotta let it cool off, girly. They let that stuff sit damn near at a boil before serving it."

Calming down from her outburst, Sheila held out the tray and said, "You want some too? Don't be shy, I'll share. Just don't take all the cheese, or I swear I'll pancake you the next time I get to hug you."

"What a way to go," Fox muttered under his breath. "Well, if you insist," he added with a tired inflection, grabbing a chip of to the side of the plate that wasn't completely smothered in the lava they call cheese. He then gestured for her to follow as the duo set a course for their seats.

The second period had yet to commence when they returned into the main part of the amphitheatre and met back up with the rest of their team. Wolf, Patrik, Adam, and Natalia were all standing there waiting for them, yet a new face had joined the group. A blue-eyed, crimson-furred vixen with long black hair stood in Fox's space. She was leaning as far back as she could from Wolf, who seemed to be encroaching on her personal space while whispering suggestively to her. It was obvious to everyone except Wolf that his attention was unwanted, and as soon as the vixen laid eyes on Fox, she rudely shoved the lupine out of the way and strutted over to him, taking that as a legitimate excuse to get away from the intrusive wolf.

"Foxie!" she exclaimed as she grabbed onto his arm lovingly. "It's been much too long, hasn't it?"

Fox sighed. "Hello, Scarlet. Yes, that's my name now. "Foxie McCloud". Everyone seems to call me that. My mom, Falco, old girlfriends... _cousins..._ " He turned to fix Scarlet with a sour stare. "I might as well have it legally changed. If I still had my team, I'd rename it "Star Foxie". I can see it now; _Star Foxie 64, Star Foxie: Adventures, Star Foxie: Assault…_ Now how does that sound, huh?"

"That second one sound pretty shitty, in my opinion," Patrik blurted out.

"Well if it wasn't so much of a furry Zelda, I think people would actually like it," Fox added. "And don't get me started on the storyline. What even _was_ that whole thing?"

"Hey, it wasn't all bad; there were some good points about it," Scarlet butted in.

"I swear if you say the only reason why it was good was because of her, I'm—"

"Oh, you know you loved it!" Scarlet laughed as she continued to cling to Fox's arm, much to Sheila's chagrin. However, she leaned in closer and whispered in Fox's ear, "Please, Fox, save me from that Wolf O'Donnell fellow. I had no idea he would turn out to be so much of a... well, a _wolf_."

"I thought you always enjoyed it when people wolf-whistled at you," Fox shot back, not bothering to whisper. "Just bear it like the rest of the female members of his— _our_ team. Plus, with an outfit like that, you're basically asking for it, anyway." Fox was referring to Scarlet's choice of clothing, a tight catsuit that fit the curves of her body so perfectly that it looked like she had merely spray-painted the outfit onto her bare fur. The catsuit was painted red white and black, and bore the Corneria City Major's team insignia. "You're honestly the only one in the System capable of making hockey look sexy."

"Hey, don't victim-blame!" Scarlet exclaimed. "I can wear what I want! I could walk down the street naked if I wanted to and it wouldn't be my fault!"

"Yes, please," Wolf drooled under his breath.

A furry, cinnamon-colored muzzle poked its way between Scarlet and Fox's heads. Glaring at Sheila's uncomfortably close face, Scarlet asked, "Um, who's this, Fox? Someone else you know?"

"Oh, Scarlet: meet Sheila Spitz. She's..."

Both husky and vixen held their breaths as Fox trailed off.

"...One of my many teammates! But I'm sure you're eager to meet the rest of Star Wolf as well, so I'll introduce you to these guys—"

Sensing Sheila's territorial protection of Fox, Scarlet let go of his arm and stepped back a pace. After getting a better look at the canine's face, she asked, "Hey, haven't we met somewhere before?"

"Huh?" Sheila yipped. "You do look rather familiar, now that I think about it..."

"Well, girl, if you're _that_ interested in Fox; go for it," the fiery red vixen suggested tiredly, resting her elbows on the railing lining the back of the row's seats. "I can't seem to gain any ground with him, so I wish you better luck than I had. Oh, and ignore any passes I make at him; they're all in jest. It's so fun playing with him." Scarlet reached out and tickled Fox's chin hair, to which the vulpine jerked his head away.

 _Almost as bad as my parents,_ the vulpine thought. _I guess making fun of me just runs in my family._

As an usher strolled past their position, Wolf suddenly reached out and grabbed Scarlet's wrist, pulling her into the spot next to him. "Over here, babe," the lupine hissed. "We've got to hide you!"

Wrenching her arm free of the mercenary's grasp, Scarlet humphed, " _You're_ the one who has his ugly mug plastered all over Corneria City... which must explain your ridiculous outfit. What, did you get that costume idea from Poodle's (yes, that's a bad Google pun) incognito mode? Been watching a lot of porn lately? Well I have news for you, freak. You'll only find me on paid subscription sites, which I doubt you'd have the money for."

Slipping into the space on Scarlet's other side, Fox joked, "Ooooh, _burn,_ Wolf!"

Wolf displayed his teeth at the vulpine. "Hey, at least _my_ brother isn't featured on gay porn sites!"

Eyes widening at an idea that flashed into his mind, Fox quickly sneered, "Well, we know what _you've_ been watching,"

Wolf's angry expression quickly morphed into that of utter horror. "Wait, no! Fuck!"

Both Fox and Scarlet erupted in laughter at Wolf's own joke backfiring. Even a few of Wolf's nearby teammates couldn't help but wear smiles, even knowing they would probably get hell for it later.

"Aren't you bothered at all that your cousin is an internet sex symbol?" Wolf shot back, trying to recover.

"Aw, you just wish you had a cousin as hot as me," Scarlet said, grinning evilly.

"Just wait until you see my sister," Fox crossed his arms proudly. "I'm half-hoping we run into her just so I can show how much that gene runs in our family, no matter how distantly or closely related they are."

"It's true," Scarlet said with a smirk. "Just look at this stud here," she added, scratching behind Fox's ear.

Wolf hacked and turned towards the ice, ignoring the two vulpines.

The players took the ice for the second period, still with a one to zilch score in favor of the home squad. All the while, Wolf and Fox stood on opposite sides of Scarlet, attempting to shield her from unwanted eyes and security. Because of this, they were awkwardly squished together in a "Scarlet sandwich" of sorts, with the vixen's smaller frame firmly pressed against both Fox and Wolf's ribs.

"Is this really necessary?" whined Scarlet, grinding her elbows against the two males surrounding her.

"The ushers here take their jobs _way_ too seriously," Patrik blurted out. "They'd take you back to your seat if they saw seven people in six spots."

Scarlet groaned, attempting to let her head fall back, but instead ran it right into Wolf's chest. "I can't breathe in here."

"You sure breathe just fine in those sexy catsuits you wear," remarked Wolf, attempting to slide his arm over her. A quick, painful jab, a high pitched yelp, and a potentially cracked rib later, Wolf abandoned that idea.

"So, what did you drag me all the way out here for?" inquired Scarlet, craning her head in just a way to look at the vulpine behind her.

"Well, we kinda need Vince," Fox scratched the back of his neck with his free arm. "You're his middleman, so we can't get a hold of him without you."

"That's all I am is just a middleman? ...er, middle- _woman_?" hissed Scarlet, winding up her elbow to drive into Fox as she did to the lupine moments prior.

Fox instinctively threw his paw down over his chest, explaining, "No, wait, hold on. There's a reason for this."

Scarlet huffed indignantly, blowing a strand of black hair out of her face. "I'm listening."

Fox looked over at Wolf, who just gave his nod of approval. With a sigh, ears tilted back, and tail lifeless, the auburn furred vulpine whispered, "We're prepping for a mercenary job, and we need our names cleared from the Cornerian databases so that we can get a bit of leeway from the feds."

Scarlet's eyes went wide as if she just saw a ghost. "Fox, are you joking? _You_?"

"It's strange, I know," admitted Fox with a vaguely shameful tone. "But, listen, it's a great opportunity for me, and that—"

Wolf suddenly let out a growl, cutting Fox off from letting that payout margin slip through his teeth. Recovering beautifully, the lupine corrected, "What McCloud is trying to say is we have a great opportunity to get our names out there as a respectable PMC, but what we're doing requires a lot of interplanetary travel. The feds have our names and locations pinpointed, so the gay dude you're bodyguarding needs to wipe our names."

Once more, Scarlet let out a rather adorable huff, turning to face him. "And why should I tell him?"

"Scar, please," Fox gently spoke up, his free arm gently touching her shoulder. "Can you please do this for us?"

"Not until you tell me why you're working with these guys," demanded Scarlet, another elbow being delivered to Wolf's chest.

"Our contract doesn't let us say," deadpanned Wolf through gritted teeth.

Scarlet scoffed. "Then you can kiss my furry ass goodbye. Sorry Fox, but I don't work beyond the law anymore. I'll see you guys around."

The vixen shoved her way through, Fox almost falling on his tail with how much force she put on him. He turned to Wolf and hissed, "You better tell her! That's our only hope of not getting arrested before we even _start_ walking away! Our job will be over before it even begins!"

Wolf angrily shook his balled paw at him, growling, "Damn you Fox."

"Just tell her!"

"Fine," snapped Wolf, then whistled at the fiery red vixen to get her attention. When she spun around with a displeased expression on her face, Wolf blurted out, "Okay, I'll talk. Our contractor promised a big chunk of change to head our way if we did this and did it right."

Scarlet needed no second invitation. A miniscule smirk appeared on the end of her muzzle as she cocked her hips and rested an open paw on her waistline. "How much are we talking about here?" she asked with a smooth, smug tone.

"A hell of a lot more than what you make in a year, princess," retorted Wolf, his patience at an all-time low.

Fox's eyes went wide. "Uh, Wolf, I wouldn't call—"

" _Princess_?" Scarlet yipped, her tail beginning to flick around wildly. "Did you just call me a _princess_?"

"Uh oh," Fox muttered under his breath, backing up into Patrik, who just brushed off the little vulpine and paid more attention to the game at hand rather than the tense scene unfolding. "Wolf, you better apologize…"

"Absolutely not," snarled the vixen, leaving a wake of anger as she advanced towards the lupine. "I swear if I have to—"

"You'll what?" Wolf taunted, a smirk creasing his muzzle. "What're ya gonna do, huh?"

Wolf made the mistake of harshly poking her as he spoke, which tripped the final wire in the vixen's head. In seconds, she grabbed a hold of Wolf's index digit, savagely bending it against its intended motion until she heard bone crack. Wolf's cry of pain was muffled by Scarlet clamping her other paw down on his muzzle, which helped her next attack go off without a hitch. A harsh knee just barely grazed the delicate area between his legs, eliciting quite an uncharacteristic and pitiful whimper through his forcefully shut maw. She then set her free paw on the bridge of his bearded muzzle and stuck two of her clawed digits into his nose, yanking upward to keep him on an unorthodox leash.

"You gonna call me that again?" Scarlet growled, on the verge of puncturing the skin inside of the lupine's nose with her sharp claws. Desperately, Wolf pulled down on the vixen's arm, but the more he pulled, the more her claws threatened to break right through his nose and tear it right off.

"Okay, okay, okay, I give," Wolf whimpered nasally, hissing in pain. "Fuck's sake, you're gonna rip my nose off!"

"That's enough Scar," intervened Fox, gently tapping her shoulder. Reluctantly, Scarlet released the wolf, allowing him to paw at his now throbbing nose.

"Euch," hacked Scarlet, grabbing Wolf's coat to wipe the mixture of blood and snot stuck on her fingers off. "Nasty."

"You had your fun," Wolf commented nasally with a paw pinching the bridge of his nose. "Now, are you getting Vince on our side or no?"

"On one condition," Scarlet said, resting her paws on her hips in a confident manner.

"I'm not giving you a slice," the lupine quickly snapped, swapping between nursing his broken finger and stopping the blood flow from his nose.

"Then I'm out," huffed Scarlet.

"Wolf, just give her a little chunk to satisfy her," pleaded Fox, stepping over to stand by Scarlet's side. He stumbled a bit when Scarlet's tail whacked his knee much like Wolf did to him last period, but he still continued, "Even a _tenth_ of a percent of that payout would suffice. And you haven't stopped handing out I. to everyone who asks yet."

Wolf growled back, wrapping his nose in a handkerchief he pulled out of one of his pockets. "That's all she gets."

"As long as I get paid, I'll do it," remarked the vixen. "So long as it's worth my while. It'll have to be a pretty big chunk to get me to operate above the law... _again_."

"Believe me, there's more than enough," Fox assured. "Will you do it for us, then?"

"Fine," she groaned softly. "But if that one gets on my nerves at all—even just one time,—I'm walking out. And you're _still_ paying me."

"A risk I can live with," Wolf muttered, outstretching his unbroken paw, to which Scarlet accepted in a firm handshake that would have crushed a normal man's hand. "Now, can we get out of here?"

"Uh, _no_ ," scoffed Scarlet, jerking her paw free. "I had to take a chunk out of _my_ paycheck to get my club seat, so I'm gonna enjoy this game."

"Yeah, and I'm not leaving either," piped in Sheila, poking at Wolf's face with her bright red foam finger. "I wanna see the game!"

"The longer we stay, the more chance there is we'll get caught," stated Wolf.

"So?" Scarlet scoffed. "You're a mercenary, are you not? If things start going belly up, then you can fight your way out of it. That's what I would do."

Wolf sighed in defeat. "Fine. But if something happens to me or my team, you're gonna be in trouble."

"You gonna treat her like property too?" sneered Fox.

With wide eyes, Wolf desperately shook his head, even so with Scarlet staring disapprovingly at him.

"Good," Fox smirked. "She doesn't like it when people put a leash on her. On a job, that is."

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

Scarlet's glare became concentrated on Fox within a split second of his comment. "That a sex joke?" questioned the vixen, her eyes staring right through Fox's soul. "Not cool, bud. Not cool."

"Don't tell me you wouldn't like it," teased Fox.

"I could say you'd like it too, but it doesn't make it true," remarked Scarlet, suddenly letting a devilish grin appear on her face. "Unless—"

"No; nope; not a chance," exclaimed Fox, throwing up his paws as he turned back to watch the game.

Scarlet giggled, trotting up behind him and pressing her paws on his shoulders. "Aw, you don't remember that little romp we had a long time ago? We were our firsts, anyway."

"There are things I wish I'd just forget," Fox muttered into his paws.

"Really, runt?" Wolf about spat. "You want to forget your first time, with _her_ of all people? Damn, if she was my first, I'd…" he trailed off, seeing the daggers the vixen was staring back at him. Recovering skillfully, Wolf finished, "...Cherish that moment and bring it up at dinner parties to make the conversation awkward…? I don't know; what do people need that information for? Blackmail?"

Both Fox and Scarlet simultaneously shook their heads in negativity. Defeated, Wolf retreated back into his spot, seemingly ignoring the rest of their conversation while keeping an ear ready to pop in again.

"Fox, you know I'm still open," reminded Scarlet, her voice striking a rather vulnerable tone.

"And you know that I respect you, but I have no intention to make anything serious between us," countered Fox.

"I know," the vixen's ears folded back. "Well, just know, in some parallel universe, you and I are the biggest couple in the galaxy."

Fox scoffed. "Yeah, and in some parallel universe, Wolf is my brother. Nice try Scar, but that's a bunch of theoretical garbage."

Scarlet suddenly became very offended at his statement. "Yeah, well, there's another one where you're dead the entire time, so don't go there."

"There's another one where you blow up too," Fox retorted. "So don't try me."

Wolf awkwardly raised his paw and added, "Technically, she blows up _twice_."

"Not helping!" Scarlet snapped, causing the lupine to go submissive again as his ears folded back.

"He's got a point," Fox smirked. "Sure there's no metal in there?" added the vulpine, poking Scarlet's arms.

Scarlet weakly kicked at his legs. "Are those even real?"

"Of course they're real; why wouldn't they be?"

Scarlet bit her lower lip, grinning the entire time. "Can I—"

"Don't you even ask."

"You two would make a great couple," Natalia remarked on the other side of Wolf.

"That's what I'm sayin'!" exclaimed Scarlet.

"Fox's gettin' upset!" yipped the vulpine, swatting away Scarlet's arms and turning back to watch the game, not even realizing that the period had ended without anyone scoring. In the meantime, however, at center ice was a group of reporters standing on a rug, while a few staff members put a large board in front of the net closest to them.

Wolf nudged the vulpine and pointed at the ice. "You know what's funny about these contests? They always pick three people, but they're objectively the same person. You've got the kid that wants to play when he gets older go first. Then they got the really attractive vixen that holds the stick like a golf club. Then the last guy is always a well-known celebrity."

Fox cocked his eyebrow. "Really? Every time?"

"Every time," affirmed Wolf. "They kid always gets it on the first shot, maybe the second. The vixen misses all three shots horribly, and the celebrity is always a toss-up. See, look; the bird in the black jersey right there. That's Swan Cruise, isn't it?"

Fox smiled as he recognized the face on the ice. "What movie is he in again?"

"You need glasses, boss," Adam chuckled. "That's actually Swan Bean."

Natalia frowned, slightly confused. "I thought Swan Bean was dead?"

The blue jay rolled his eyes. "Just because he happens to die in every movie he's in doesn't mean he's dead IRL."

Getting fed up with their petty argument, Patrik firmly planted his paws on both the avian and coyote's shoulders, stating, "You're _both_ wrong. That's SWAN CEEEEENAAAAA!"

He then roughly grabbed Adam's wing, effortlessly hoisting the avian onto his shoulders, then abruptly flipped him over so that his spine slammed against the ground. The malamute smiled at the rest of the team, but saw the mix of disapproval and hesitance they wore, so he crouched down and lifted the avian back up to his feet, acting as a support for him as he groaned in apparent discomfort.

Wolf grunted, continuously nursing his finger. "Well, I'm gonna go get a cup of ice to ice down my broken finger," he announced with a sour inflection, giving an acidic glare to the scarlet vixen. "Guys wanna grab some grub if we're staying this long?"

"I could go for some ice myself," moaned Adam, stretching out his back and shoulders.

"I'll go too," Natalia added.

"I'm going back to my seat," Scarlet huffed. "The food up there is much better."

"I'm gonna stay," Sheila answered. "I'm not hungry."

"Fair enough," Wolf grunted again. "I'll be back, runt."

Wolf slid an arm over the coyote's shoulders, while she wrapped an arm around his waist, prompting the duo to slip away from their seats and into the nearby tunnel. The rest of those who agreed to leave followed, leaving two canines and a vulpine in the standing room section, reduced to watching the main rink lights dim down almost completely to reduce the blinding light reflecting off of the ice surface. All the while, another song began playing over the speakers, starting with a melodic intro comprised of an acoustic and bass guitar harmonizing in an admittedly beautiful way.

Fox couldn't help but look around, staring down at the rest of the rink before him, and occasionally looking up at the club and nosebleed seats towards the top of the amphitheater as well. A sea of red, black, and white greeted his eyes, with a few stragglers sporting the green and blue of the away team. Nothing out of the ordinary—thank god.

He just managed to see Sheila out of the corner of his eye, humming along to the song playing. When the drums kicked in, her head began faintly bobbing along, though not getting carried away or boisterous with it. She stood there, leaning against the silver guardrail while continuously munching away at her tray of nachos. She acted… calm.

Fox couldn't help but smirk. Guess the talk he gave her about toning it down a notch—or five—worked. For once she wasn't screaming her head off, or intruding on his personal space, or literally dragging him along by his ear to wherever she wanted to go. She finally showed her first little expression of restraint and self-control. Even so, she looked content with it, just faintly humming to the song while her tail swished and swayed in wide, quick arcs.

Obviously Sheila wasn't paying attention to the vulpine down the way, otherwise she would have noticed that he hadn't taken his eyes off of her in quite a while. She was too occupied in jamming out to the song that had slipped into a much more powerful and loud riff, but yet she refrained from going berserk as she did last intermission. Quietly, she sang along; her angelic singing voice coming across Fox's vulpine ears. The vulpine in question seemingly fell into a trance with her hypnotic bobbing locks and her entrancing voice and smile. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"Like what you see?" Patrik's smooth, yet toneless voice spooked the vulpine out of his fur.

Recovering by placing a paw over his chest to regain his breath, Fox hissed through clenched teeth, "Holy hell; what was that for?"

"I saw what you were eying," the malamute continued smugly, crossing his arms on the metallic ledge. "Something happen while you two were away?"

"What? No! No no no no no, nothing happened!" stuttered Fox, quickly trying to defend himself.

"Yeah, you lie worse than reporters on Dingo News," he deadpanned. "What happened?"

"We just ran into my parents, that's all," Fox answered, but the look in the huge malamute's steel gray eyes told him to elaborate right then and there. "I had to introduce Sheila to them, and because I wanted to keep our cover, I told them I was dating her. That got them started on their famous discussions of who they want me to date and who they want me to tie the knot with—"

"So what's this got anything to do with you staring at her?" inquired Patrik, having enough courtesy to keep his voice low enough so that she couldn't hear. "It was all just a fake thing anyway."

"Yeah, but, I kinda snapped at her on the way back when she kept going on and on about it," admitted Fox, pinning his ears against his skull. "She just looked really sad about it, so I gave in and apologized. Then she started acting really protective and territorial with me around Scarlet. Does she do that to any of you guys?"

"She did with Wolf for a while," Patrik stated. "Up until Wolf took his _metaphorical property_ mindset too far. From what she told me, if she disobeyed him once or did something he didn't like, he'd get physical. Abusive, even. I don't think he's tried to rape her, but don't put it against him to try."

Fox's jaw unhinged. "And you let him get away with it?"

"He signs my checks," answered the malamute. "I couldn't care less about this team. He wants to do that, then that's on him. If it doesn't pertain to me or my checks, I don't care. If you wanna say something to him, then go for it. Don't let me get in the way."

Fox shook his head. "You don't have any sense of compassion, you know that?"

Even Patrik had to nod at that. "Yeah, I'm one rude-ass son of a bitch. You realize that all you people are to me are coworkers, right?"

Laughing, Fox gave him a nudge and said, "Hey, lighten up, will ya? Surely you've got a bit there, no?"

"As if," Patrik scoffed. "Not as bad as what I can see with you and Sheila."

"Really?" Fox asked rhetorically. "Do you really see something between us? I just met her. This isn't some "love at first sight" garbage."

"I sure don't think so," the malamute mumbled. "I may be cold as ice, but at least I'm not ignorant about what I see. You, my friend, have a little _thing_ for her."

Expression flipping completely, Fox hissed back, "No, I don't! Just… get off my back, will ya?"

Looking back towards the ice, Patrik sighed, "Suit yourself. Just don't come cryin' to me when you need relationship advice."

"I sure wouldn't go to you for that, believe me," Fox shot back under his breath, taking a step away from the large canine, inadvertently shortening the distance between himself and the husky. To his dismay, Sheila turned her head and smiled at him, yet she didn't explode into words as she normally would. In fact, at the sight of him, she blushed a bit, getting Fox's ears to warm up involuntarily.

Kicking at the pole holding the metal ledge up, Sheila blurted out, "Sorry about earlier, Fox. I didn't mean to embarrass you in front of your parents like that."

"Embarrass?" Fox echoed humorously, trying, and ultimately failing to withhold a laugh. "She, you don't know embarrassment until you're in training at the academy and those two come in to visit. They told my entire training squadron every little thing about me. I wanted to quit because I couldn't go a day without them harassing me about it."

Sheila giggled, swiping another now lukewarm crisp from her tray. "But it was funny, right?"

Chortling in a sarcastic manner, Fox answered, "Uh, no. Not really. Not even close."

"Oh," Sheila's smile faded, her ears falling flat again. "Sorry, I'm prying again, aren't I? I just keep doing that to you, and, well, I just, I can't help it. I just don't know when to keep my mouth shut—"

"Come on Sheila," Fox breathed softly. "Don't be so hard on yourself, okay? Sure, you've got a little bit of a hyperactive and bubbly personality, but that's nothing to be ashamed of. You could be like Wolf, after all."

"Kinda wish I wasn't like this," Sheila muttered with a bitter tone, acting genuinely sad and frustrated for the first time that Fox had seen out of her. "All I do is make people upset more than anything."

"Sheila," Fox sighed, gently resting a paw on his shoulder. She glanced over at him, tears beginning to well in her eyes. Forcing a smile, Fox continued, "I was just flustered when I snapped at you earlier, if that's what you're still upset about. I didn't mean what I said in a bad way."

Her sky blue eyes began to wobble. "Really?"

Fox instantly froze up at the sight of her eyes. God, the puppy-dog-eyes. They shot straight through his soul, directly into his heart, where the absolutely adorable expression turned him into a pile of slush from within. It hit him so quickly and so abruptly that he thought he was about to see those cheesy nachos again.

"Yeah, you're okay," Fox blurted out, clutching at his stomach. "Uh, I'm gonna use the restroom before the next period starts. I'll be right back."

Sheila didn't even have a chance to talk back before Fox bolted from his spot in search for the nearest latrine to dump the contents of his stomach into.

Not caring if he struck someone in the face, Fox flung the door to the men's restroom open and rushed in. With a paw clamped over his mouth, he raced to the nearest unoccupied stall and crouched in front of the white porcelain toilet. But, instead of giving in to the impulse of disgorging the frothing contents of his stomach, he thought against the urge to make a mess. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, closed his eyes, and slowed his breathing, glad to smell anything besides the cheap nachos he had ingested earlier. Though the awful stench that clung to the restroom wasn't much better by any means.

With some effort, Fox managed to calm his churning stomach and successfully avoided throwing up. Once he was certain the nausea had subsided, the vulpine let out a sigh and carefully rose to his feet. He exited the foul-smelling stall and stepped over to the sink counter lining the opposite wall. Relieved that he had escaped with the contents of his stomach still in place, Fox held his hands beneath an automatic faucet, splashing the cool water over his sweaty forehead and muzzle. The water continued to calm his nerves even further.

After drying his face and paws with a wad of paper towels, Fox paused in front of the mirror and inspected the vulpine staring back at him. Nothing seemed to be the least bit wrong with him on the outside. He never remembered feeling like this before, either.

 _What's wrong with you, Fox_? He asked himself. _Why are you feeling this way? Sheila's just another girl, and you're not even in a relationship with her! But... did Fara ever make you feel this way just by glancing at you with her gorgeous eyes? Those sweet, innocent, sparkling, naïve—_

 _No!_ he internally shouted, cutting that line of thought off, resisting the urge to slap himself. _There's nothing special between you and Sheila. Whatever effect she seems to have on you, you're just imagining it. Now get your shit together and get back out there!_

With his private pep-talk completed, Fox suddenly became aware of his surroundings again. He looked around in embarrassment, hoping that no one had witnessed his uncharacteristic breakdown. Yet to his relief, the restroom was nearly empty except for him; everyone had returned to the arena for the start of the second period.

The restroom wasn't entirely empty, however. A toilet in a stall a few doors down flushed, and a lupine with dark fur emerged, buckling his pants. The black-coated timber wolf stopped at the sink adjacent to Fox's, and began washing his hands.

Fox pretended not to notice the stranger, instead focusing on fixing his hair in the mirror. However, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the lupine looking at him with a curious expression. Eventually, the timber wolf came right out and asked, "You're Fox McCloud, aren't you?"

At first, Fox panicked after the stranger recognized him. But then he realized he himself wasn't a wanted criminal yet, so he decided to maintain his cool.

"Er, yes, that's me," Fox admitted.

"Wow, you use to be the pipe dream of every mercenary—and even some of the law enforcement officers like myself."

Fox gave the lupine a curious look. He certainly wasn't dressed as an officer; he had on a brown leather flight jacket, and a pair of dark jeans—no badge to be found at all.

Noticing Fox's confusion, the timber wolf explained, "Oh, I'm an undercover officer." He extended his paw to Fox, who shook it. "Name's Garrick Kanison."

"Hey, it's always nice meeting a fan," Fox said. Suddenly, the memory of Natalia's fan-girl act and subsequent use of a replica blaster to stun him popped into his head. "But I don't do autographs," he blurted out, taking a cautious step back from the lupine.

Kanison waved his hand dismissively. "Hey, no worries there. I understand. But I do have something else in mind. You know, I'm not supposed to tell any civilians this... but since you're _the_ Fox McCloud, I'll make an exception." He fumbled in his coat's inside pocket for a moment, then removed a laminated photo and showed it to Fox. "Have you seen this man?"

Instantly recognizing the fugitive in the photo, Fox couldn't help gulping.

"I figured you might, since he and you are longtime rivals. You see, we got a report that someone had sighted Wolf O'Donnell in this arena, so the force got sent out to look for him. I was wondering if you'd give us a hand with finding him."

Fox froze, suddenly realizing the horrible position he had stumbled into. He now found himself in some cruel ironic joke, having to track down his own team leader with the CDF on his side.

"Ha ha, I'm sorry," Fox chuckled nervously, internally improvising a ruse just like what he did with his parents. "But I retired years ago and gave up my mercenary license. I can't accept jobs anymore."

"Well in that case, I'll have to temporarily deputize you!" Kanison exclaimed, reaching into his coat again.

"Look, officer—" Fox interjected.

"Ah, but I insist!"

"But think about it; why would Wolf O'Donnell even be at a hockey game?" the vulpine questioned. "It's an awfully petty thing to risk capture for."

Kanison shrugged. "Damn, you're right. He sure must be a dedicated fan!"

Fox continued trying to dissuade the officer. "If he's here, then I sure haven't seen him; I'd recognize his face anywhere."

"I won't take 'no' for an answer," Kanison said, shaking his head stubbornly. "You can't ignore the call of justice, Mr. McCloud. You don't just _stop_ being a hero."

The vulpine was starting to get fed up with the persistent officer. "Okay, Garry, was it?"

"Garrick."

"Oh, sorry. Garrick," Fox corrected himself. "Just trust me on this. Take the word of someone who's fought against Wolf for years, and _beaten_ him each time. Wolf wouldn't be caught dead around a place like this, so you might as well give up now. In fact, I advise you to call off all of your fellow officers. You're wasting your time here."

But Kanison was getting suspicious. "Hey now, you seem bound and determined to keep me from looking for O'Donnell. Why are you so opposed to this operation, anyway? Is there something between you and Wolf?"

 _Oh what Wolf would do to this poor officer if he heard him say that,_ Fox thought, withholding a smirk.

In the meantime, Kanison narrowed his eyes at Fox. "I'm sorry, Mr. McCloud, but I'll have to ask you to come with me."

As the officer reached for his arm, time seemed to slow down for Fox. As he watched the lupine's arm move towards him in slow-motion, a myriad of thoughts raced through his head. In essence, this was the turning point for Fox. Even as a mercenary, he had always been on the right side of the law. He had sided with Corneria against Andross during the Lylat War, and for every other mission he flew, he had never once gone above the law. Nor had he ever fudged the numbers on his taxes. But this moment was the first he had ever considered an alternative to the "righteous mercenary" persona he had always adhered to. He was caught between the law and staying true to his new team. But what was he fighting for now? Was he seriously fighting for _money_? Of all the ridiculous things? It certainly wasn't because he believed in Senator Muzzin's policies, he was damn sure of that. Hell, if it was true that he was doing it for the money, there was probably a large reward for Wolf's capture. Maybe not as high as the pay he would receive from doing Muzzin's dirty work, but definitely a much safer and easier method.

It was settled, then.

Before Garrick could grab his arm, Fox took a hold of the officer's hand. "All right. I _have_ seen Wolf here. In fact I know where he is."

The timber wolf's expression didn't change. "Then why did you deny it at first? I can still arrest you for withholding information."

"I didn't want to tell you at first, because he's a very dangerous man," Fox explained, "And I didn't want to see you get hurt trying to be heroic. But, if we work together, I think we can take him. Tell your fellow officers he and his team are in the back of section 117, in the nosebleed seats."

"Now that's more like it," Officer Kanison remarked. Whipping out a radio transmitter, he began notifying the rest of his force of the outlaw mercenary's whereabouts. "We should have a lock-down in place within the next ten minutes," he notified Fox.

The vulpine released a deep breath, glad to be done with the troublesome situation. As they both started for the restroom's exit, the timber wolf asked, "Can you give me the descriptions of the rest of his teammates? We have an idea, but I'd like you to corroborate."

"Sure," Fox said. "He should be accompanied by a large male malamute, a male bluejay, and a female coyote. Leon Powalski is waiting outside with their SUV."

"What about a canine?" Garrick asked. "Female husky, excessively long hair. Have you seen her?"

Fox suddenly fell silent, not making any effort to answer as they passed by a row of urinals.

"Mr. McCloud, was she with them?" the lupine repeated.

Just before they reached the exit, Fox gave his answer. In accordance with the beat dropping in the next song, and even before Kanison could react, he swung his right fist at the officer, dealing him a swift uppercut to the jaw. The timber wolf tumbled backwards, slamming against the adjacent wall, evidently dazed. Before he could recover from the first attack, Fox grabbed his head and swung it sideways along the tiled wall, smashing it muzzle-first into a black paper-towel dispenser. He had thrown so much force behind the assault that the dispenser came free of the wall, crashing to the floor and spreading a long roll of cheap brown paper towels across the floor.

Fox made to follow through with his second attack, but he slipped on the trail of paper towels and momentarily lost his balance. The police officer recovered just in time to take advantage of his misstep, ducking beneath his second swing and ramming his elbow into Fox's gut. The vulpine bent over and clutched his stomach, stumbling backwards a few steps. Continuing the assault, Garrick planted his foot on Fox's backside, kicking him directly into a nearby urinal. The protruding base of the porcelain fixture struck Fox right in the groin, and he slumped over the urinal whilst wheezing in a high-pitched voice.

Officer Kanison grabbed Fox's shirt collar, jerking him backwards and away from the row of urinals. Fox ignored the screaming pain in his abdomen and twisted free of the wolf, slowly retreating further back into the restrooms. Garrick made a dive for him, but Fox sidestepped, placing himself between the officer and the sink counter. Pushing off of the fixtures, Fox tackled Garrick into a nearby stall, swinging the door open as they barged through it. They fell to the floor inside the stall, but Fox managed to grab a hold of Garrick's head while he reached for the vulpine's throat. With a feral snarl, Fox smashed the officer's muzzle against the edge of the toilet seat—once; twice; three times, until his adversary fell unconscious. Still brimming with adrenaline, Fox forced the timber wolf's head into the filthy bowl of water, flushing the toilet for good measure. Whimsically, he pretended he was giving Wolf a swirly instead of the darker-furred lupine.

Once the water had refilled inside the toilet, intermixing with the lupine's blood, Fox let go of the officer and slumped down beside him. What had he just done? Had he really just thrown away years of upright, lawful mercenary history, and his own status as the hero of the Lylat? And for what—some canine girl he had a spontaneous crush on?

As new bubbles began rising in the toilet bowl, Fox suddenly panicked. Realizing his mistake, he lifted the wolf's head out of the water and let him fall to the tiled floor, thankful he was still breathing. Then, on an impulse, he rifled through the lupine's coat pockets.

He came up with the officer's ID, badge, and enforcement blaster. Checking the ID card, he confirmed Garrick's identity as an undercover agent before pocketing all three of the stolen objects.

 _Oh no, the arena's about to go into lock-down!_ Fox thought to himself. _I have to get word to Wolf and Scarlet, fast!_

Rising to his feet, he slid out of the stall and raced out of the exit, leaving the restroom behind.

* * *

[҉]

* * *

 **Callie's A/N: Don't worry, Shep, I got him back for ya. Take the first letter of every new paragraph starting at "Even Patrik had to nod at that." Yeah, I play that way too Elarix. :)**


	7. Subzero (III)

[҉]

 **Chapter VII — Subzero [Period Three]**

[҉]

* * *

 **Paul Linford — "Kick It Up a Notch" (NFS Most Wanted Pursuit Soundtrack 3)**

* * *

[҉]

* * *

Out of breath and sore in almost all of his muscles, Fox fought his way through the small clusters of fans heading back to their seats for the third period. He was panting loudly by the time he slipped through the tunnel and almost ran into the rest of his team. Wolf's reaction time was the best out of all of them, as he snatched up the vulpine by his sleeves before his slipping boots could go careening over the railing and into the sea of fans.

"Easy, runt," Wolf suppressed a chuckle. "They're just warming up right now; you didn't miss anything."

"Except for number 22 tripping when he stepped off the bench," laughed Natalia, tail swishing in apparent content.

"No, guys, we need to go," Fox demanded, pulling on Wolf's sleeve to try to get him to follow.

"I thought we agreed to stay for the rest of the game," Natalia said with curiosity.

"Yeah, I don't wanna go just yet!" whined Sheila, crossing her arms over the logo of her jersey.

"You don't understand," Fox interjected, ripping out the timber wolf's ID and badge from his pocket, stuffing it in Wolf's face. "They're here!"

Wide-eyed, Wolf snatched the badge right out of his paw, swearing as he saw the name and rank inscribed. "Pack it up boys; we need to go."

"Wolf!" yipped Sheila, angrily pouting at him. "But the game!"

"Fuck the game," snarled the lupine, grabbing Natalia by the back of her shirt collar and forcing her forward through the tunnel. "Go. Go go go!"

As the team filed out into the concourse, Fox pushed at Wolf to make him turn right, intentionally altering their route so that they wouldn't have to run into his parents again. Quickly, the team traversed the length of the longest straightaway, staying close to the wall to decrease their chances of being spotted.

"You've got some explaining to do, McCloud," growled Wolf, retreating into his coat as he spoke.

"All I did was wash my hands," Fox retorted, just barely keeping up with the rest of the group. "That officer knew I was Fox McCloud and asked if I would help find you. They got a tip that you were here."

"This is exactly the reason why I hated this goddamn hockey game idea," Wolf lamented, stopping as they got to the corner of the commerce area, right at one of the entrances to the club area on the next floor. "There's way too much of a risk. Did you rat us out?"

"Of course not," Fox lied through his teeth. "But he got suspicious, and I had to fight him."

"No wonder you had trouble walking straight," Adam chirped. "Thought you had a few beers before getting back."

"Did he hurt you?" Sheila asked, knifing through the group to get to Fox. The vulpine instinctively threw up his arms to prevent her from intruding on his personal bubble, but that worked just as well as lighting a match underwater. As the light copper husky poked and prodded at him as if she were an overly-attached nurse, Fox managed to pull out his phone, and within moments had sent a text to Scarlet telling her to get down to the main level immediately.

"Hey, Fox," a voice the vulpine instantly recognized as his father's shouted at him, making his eyes metaphorically shoot out of his skull. He impulsively pushed Sheila off of him and turned to face his father, hoping that Wolf heard and would back away from the scene. Luckily, he did, and forced the rest of the team—aside from Sheila—towards the windows nestled in the corner of the curved concessions area.

"Oh, hi dad," Fox said with a vaguely awkward and urgent tone, attempting to think of yet another ruse to get his father out of his fur. "Why aren't you down watching the game?"

"Ah, your mother needed a drink to take her meds," James said with a hint of embarrassment, stuffing his paws into his jacket. "I swear there's somethin' with authors and having migraines. That Scott Sheppard author said that happens to him a lot when he's writing, or whatever."

Fox chuckled along, watching as James pulled out his wallet and flipped through a few compartments.

"What brings you here, if I may ask?" James asked. Fox visibly flushed, and to his dismay Sheila butted in before he could respond.

"Scarlet said she was gonna meet up with Fox down here," the husky answered surely, popping Fox's personal bubble by having her muzzle jutt off of his shoulder.

"Oh, cool," James grinned. "I guess I'll stick around to say hi to her then."

"Oh, that's okay," stammered Fox, shoving Sheila away. "You don't have to right now. I can bring her back to your seats after we're done talking."

"But I'm already here," James laughed, roughly patting Fox's back as he slid alongside him. "Might as well kill two birds with one stone, no?"

Fox immediately thought of a scene of his father beating Adam to death with a rock, but he pushed his imagination away and replied, "Well, shouldn't you be getting back to mom? Those headaches ought to hurt."

"She can survive for another five minutes," laughed the elder fox, tightening his one-armed grasp on his kit.

Fox began to get impatient. "Dad, I don't mean to sound rude, but I want to talk to Scar alone."

"I'll be quick, I promise," assured James, adjusting the shades perched on his muzzle.

"Uh, Mr. McCloud," Sheila awkwardly stepped between the two vulpines, ears folded back in apparent hesitance. "Fox is right. We'd like our privacy, if you don't mind."

James stepped back a few feet, his ears drooping down as well. "Oh. Well… sorry, Fox. Didn't mean to bother you so much."

Fox felt his heart strings get pulled with how sad and disappointed his father's voice sounded.

"Just figured you might've been excited to see your old man again after being away for years on end," James continued softly. "You just left us a few years back without even saying goodbye. You're my kid, Fox, and I do care about what you're doing with your life. You may get older, but I'll never stop caring about you. Since you insist, I'll just shut up and get out of… whatever it is you need that privacy for. I won't bug you anymore."

Letting every part of him deflate like an old balloon that had sat in the sun for too long, James turned around and trudged away. As his heels dragged against the floor, Fox breathed a sigh tainted with guilt. He had made his dad upset before, but something about this time made him feel ten times worse. Lying outright to his father, just to keep him from knowing what his son found himself in made Fox feel like—

"Crap," Sheila blurted out, her cheeks blazing red. "Sorry Fox, I messed that one up too, didn't I?"

"No, _I_ messed up," argued Fox, resting his back against the wall. "I should've just told him."

Sheila covered her mouth. "About us not being a real couple?"

"About this team, Sheila," answered Fox in a short tone. "I already ratted them out to that CDF officer, and that's why they're probably gonna lock this place down any moment."

"You sold us out?" Sheila yipped, suddenly contorting her muzzle into the most ferocious scowl he had ever seen. "Are you stupid? Now we're screwed because of you! Thanks a lot."

"Sheila, I didn't—"

Sheila huffed and turned her back on him. "To think I wanted to be your boyfriend. Now I don't even want to be your _fake_ one!"

"I didn't sell _you_ out," snapped the vulpine, grabbing her shoulders and roughly turning her around to face himself, accidentally slapping himself in the face with her hair. "The officer asked about you specifically, and I didn't tell."

Sheila's anger suddenly diminished. "Wait, you did what?"

"I put my own reputation on the line just so that they wouldn't go after you," he continued. "But now we're all gonna get fu—"

"Attention!" a voice over the rink-wide intercom system barked, flash-freezing the entire group instantly. "Space Dynamics Arena is now under a CDF mandated lockdown. Please remain seated, and CDF personnel will handle the unfolding situation. Thank you."

" _FOX_!" Wolf snarled, and before Fox knew it the large lupine had him by the scruff of his neck. "What the fuck did you do?!"

"Just be lucky I had time to warn you," retorted Fox, cringing as Wolf tightened his hold.

"Let go of him," growled Sheila, giving a rough shove to Wolf, allowing Fox to squirm out of his hold. Wolf retaliated instantly, shoving the husky right back with his teeth bared in rage. Fox managed to break her impending fall by grabbing her arms before she lost her footing.

Wolf wanted to press further, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw armed CDF soldiers storming in through the entrance on the other side of the short connecting hallway. A shot rang out behind Wolf, clipping the first soldier's gun straight out of his paws. Then the lupine saw a streak of red flash before him before his collar started tugging away from him.

"Get your fat ass downstairs," Scarlet snarled, shoving one of her handguns into Wolf's chest as she pushed him towards the two heavy doors built into the supporting wall. Using her own, she provided cover fire into the large group of encroaching soldiers as the Star Wolf team slipped through the "authorized personnel only" door and sped down the resulting set of stairs. Fox shoved Sheila towards that door as well, simultaneously locating the weapon he stole off of Officer Kanison and helped Scarlet fight back. Bullets and lasers were flying around aimlessly, but the two vulpines managed to get away from the onslaught of fire against them and chased after the Star Wolf team.

[x]

Still en route to his seat, James continued walking down the crowded hallway. His ears perked back up after a harsh commanding voice blared over the arena's intercom, announcing the lockdown and ordering all occupants to stay seated.

 _A lockdown?_ James thought to himself. _Who would the CDF have to restrain besides an extremely sore loser? I don't remember any after game fights getting that rough, plus we're only halfway through the match. I sure hope Fox is..._

There lay his answer. _Fox._ He had been acting strange all day, evading questions and contradicting himself without realizing it. James expected Fox's nervousness wasn't only due to his girlfriend's presence. But now that he thought about it, was that husky even his girlfriend? He had noticed four other anthropoi in Fox's group, but they had shied away when he approached them. Fox wouldn't even clearly explain what business he had with Scarlet... and now it was becoming apparent why.

"What has he gotten himself into this time..." James sighed. It was quite possible his son had gone rogue, and in all likelihood, the CDF were after _him_.

James stopped beside a food counter, removing his sunglasses and slipping them into his shirt's neck while also removing his coat. Peppy always told him he couldn't tell the two McClouds apart except for James' trusty shades. Now it was time to put that to the test.

Stepping back around the counter again, he hurried past several confused hockey enthusiasts until he found a pair of CDF officers. Upon noticing the gold-furred vulpine, they looked up from their equipment, making eye-contact. James faked a horrified expression, bugging his eyes out and sliding to a stop. He whirled around and shot off back the way he had come, grinning to himself as the officers began the pursuit.

"Stop, McCloud!" one of the canines ordered. A bang ensued, followed by a bullet pinging off the floor to James' right.

 _Oh shit, they mean business!_ James chuckled to himself. _I'm getting too old for this._

While the officers trailed after him, boots screeching on the smooth floor, James heard one of them use his radio. "O'Dempsey here. We've spotted McCloud and are engaging pursuit. Send support to the west hallway..."

 _It's working!_ James silently congratulated himself, pulling ahead of the officers. _Looks like your old man still has it in him, Fox!_

At that moment, James rounded a corner and came face to face with three new CDF personal.

"Freeze!" two of the officers simultaneously shouted, while all three drew their guns.

James slid to a stop and spun around, heading for a nearby exit that lead into a stairway. Just as he burst into the stairwell and heavy door began to shut behind him, another shot rang out.

A sharp pain stabbed into his back.

James stumbled to a halt, standing ramrod straight—almost leaning backwards. The pain began to spread in his back, and his spine felt as if submerged in icy water. He shuffled a few halting steps towards the stairs, but then the cement steps seemed to rise up to meet him.

[x]

"We've got to make it to the east side," Wolf's gruff voice echoed down the stairwell. "Leon's waiting there with the car; every other exit is heavily guarded."

At the bottom of the stairs, Scarlet shoved the door open and stepped out into the hallway, blaster extended at arm's length. She scanned either direction of the hallway the stairs opened out into, then motioned for the Star Wolf team to follow. Adam constantly stumbled and tripped as he ran, struggling to keep up with the rest of his team. He was distracted by his tablet, simultaneously jamming the CDF's comms system and pulling up a blueprint of the arena.

"Kajær, where to now?" Wolf demanded.

"Uh, looks like the safest way to the east side is through the actual rink," the blue jay informed him.

"Left or right?!" Wolf barked.

"Left, left!" Adam squawked, almost dropping his tablet. Scarlet and Wolf took the lead again, with Fox and Sheila quickly catching up to them. Through several dimly-lit hallways, they found themselves in the away team's locker rooms. They didn't stop to dilly-dally, but had to slow to avoid slipping over discarded clothing, damp towels, and smelly briefs.

After the locker room they came upon a dark corridor lit at the opposite end by a white light. The clamor of thousands of confused people echoed down the tunnel, tipping them off to their location. Quickly traversing the corridor, Star Wolf found themselves in the midst of the away team's benches, every member of which was seated in neat rows but constantly griping and complaining that their game was interrupted.

"We have to cross over to the Major's side!" Wolf instructed them, barreling down the line of benches to get as close to the home team's side as possible. As Sheila followed, she paused at each unsuspecting teammate to poke them in the rear with her foam number one finger.

"Boop! Boop! And a boop for you! And... boop!" Some of the away team stood up to shout at the husky, while others merely looked over their shoulders and glared at her.

Wolf was the first to climb over the half-boards and onto the ice as if his line was up next to take the faceoff. He was in such a hurry that his feet flipped out from beneath him. He grabbed onto the edge for support, but his broken finger caused him to lose his grip and fall flat on his butt on the hard ice. Scarlet burst out laughing as she parkoured the crossing. She jumped up onto the back of the bench, almost stepping on a player's tail, then vaulted through the little opening the confused players made and balanced on the edge of the half-boards before using Wolf's head as a stepping stone to the home team's side.

Fox, Sheila, and Natalia trailed closely on their heels, though none of them attempted Scarlet's gymnastics. Mocking Wolf, Fox opened the short door by the metallic lever underneath the full ledge and gently stepped onto the frictionless surface. They slipped at first, but for the most part maintaining their balance. As Sheila bumped into Wolf's still seated form, she nearly fell backwards, but Fox managed to catch her before she could. Natalia grabbed onto the wall for support, giving Wolf a hand up before they followed after them and climbed into the Major's bench.

Kajær paused before he attempted to cross the ice. Sliding his tablet into his backpack, he rubbed his feathered hands together and blew on them. "Okay Adam, you got this. Just don't make a fool of yourself by—"

"Man, screw that," Patrik thundered behind him. The towering malamute wrapped his arms around the blue jay's waist, turning his shoulder to the acrylic glass barrier that separated the two teams' bench areas.

"Patrik, Patrik what are you doing?!" Adam demanded as he furiously struggled to escape the canine's powerful grasp.

Merely grunting in response, Patrik charged sideways, at the last moment leaping to throw his full weight against the glass wall. His shoulder broke through the glass, shattering the barrier into hundreds of shards as he and Adam sailed into the Major's bench without the humiliation of having to traverse the ice.

While Patrik had shielded Adam from the impact, both of the teammates sprawled on the floor, dazed and confused. A gloved hand helped the malamute up, then brushed some of the glass from his clothes; it was one of the Major's players.

"The hell, man? I appreciate your dedication, but..." The player trailed off, a look of recognition on his face. "Hey, haven't I played against you before? You were that defenceman from, oh..." He snapped his fingers but was unable to recall the country. "But your name's Maelstrom, right? Or-or Dullstorm? It can't be Duststorm, can it?"

Not wanting the player to recognize him, Patrik grabbed Adam's wing and jerked him upright. "Mmmm… get the number of the guy who hit me," the avian murmured groggily. But Patrik hurried the blue jay along, closing the ground between them and the rest of the team.

While Star Wolf crossed between the two teams' sides, the CDF finally noticed them at the sound of the thundering explosion of glass. Several officers in the stands spoke furiously into their radio units, but Adam had successfully jammed their frequencies. When this method failed, the officers waved and shouted across the arena, but again were lost in the confusing throng with the rest of the crowd. Regardless of the evident disarray, many CDF officers spotted the team amongst the players' benches and rushed down to the ice rink after them. Their attempt at crossing the entire rink went about as well as Wolf's, though much more spectacular. Officer after officer rushed out onto the ice, only to slip and slide across the frictionless ground. Some managed to slide the entire way across, comically windmilling their arms like cartoon characters, while others immediately slipped and fell on their rumps, disgraced in front of the entire arena of fans.

Star Wolf had a large lead on any pursuers as a result, and continued traversing the Major's side of the bench towards their entrance tunnel. Scarlet received countless wolf-whistles from the line of players, while Sheila straggled behind searching the benches for the tell-tale number 31 of her hero.

They slipped into the dark tunnel and into the Corneria City Major's locker rooms, mirroring the away team's setup they had run through not five minutes earlier. Sheila gazed at all of the hockey gear and clothing lining the benches, paying much more attention than she had for the previous team's area.

"Oh. My. Gawwwd! Henrik Price goes naked in this room!" The husky slowed to a halt and gently laid a paw against the door to a shower stall. "If only these walls could speak..." she whispered.

"Run, dammit, Sheila!" Fox cursed, grabbing the canine's arm and pulling her along with the rest of the team.

After a few minutes of intense sprinting, the loveliest sight in the world greeted their eyes; a glowing red 'EXIT' sign hung above a side door that lead out of the arena. Fox was so close to his escape that he could almost tangibly feel it. But as soon as Scarlet thrust the door open and the team spilled out into the night air behind her, they stopped in their tracks.

Two policemen were waiting outside the exit, idly leaning against the back of their squad car. Once Star Wolf burst from the arena, however, they both stood up and drew their guns, aiming them at the unprepared mercenaries.

"Don't move!" one of the officers—a spectacled bear—ordered them. "Don't force us to fire; we're prepared to shoot!"

"Shit..." Wolf snarled. He and the rest of his teammates slowly raised their hands, complying with the officer's orders.

At that moment, an engine revved somewhere down the parking lot. As tires screeched against the pavement, the officers turned to look, but were too late to react. Fox's black SUV came out of nowhere to ram the officers head-on into the back of their patrol car, sending a resounding crash through the parking lot. Bones audibly snapped and a few sprinkles of blood coated the SUV's windshield; the cops were undoubtedly dead.

The driver's window slowly rolled down, revealing Leon's grinning face. "Oh, I'm sorry; were they important?"

Fox took several shaky steps forward, jaw hanging open. "Leon... what did you do with my car?!"

"Meter's running, kid," Leon joked with his Cheshire grin.

"You got dead people all over the hood of my car!" Fox continued to wheeze. "Innocent cops! Great! There goes a chunk of my tax return!"

"Surprise, pup; you're driving," Wolf said as he shoved Fox towards his car. The lupine climbed into the back seat with Natalia and Adam, while Scarlet and Patrik took the middle with Sheila plopping down between them. Fox did as he was told, climbing into the front and kicking Leon into the passenger seat. When he sat down and buckled in, Fox blanched at the spray of red that speckled the windshield.

"Oh, geez..." He felt like he might get sick again.

"Allow me," Leon sneered as he leaned over and activated the wipers.

As Fox backed away from the police car, the two officers came with his SUV, still plastered to the front of his hood. Fox put the car back into drive again, then jammed the accelerator until the bodies slid off and slipped beneath the car. He grimaced when his SUV bumped over the corpses.

Barrelling through the access alleyway connecting the side of the rink with the main city streets, Fox narrowly avoided numerous obstacles as his tires skidded against the asphalt before regaining their grip and sending the SUV accelerating through downtown roads. It didn't take long at all for the resounding wail of sirens to begin trailing him.

" **All units; be advised** ," Fox's dashboard scanner crackled. " **Suspect has initiated a high-speed pursuit due westbound of Space Dynamics Arena. Requesting active patrol members to engage**."

"Oh, that's not good," Leon commented sarcastically, pivoting in his seat to face Wolf all the way in the back row of seats. "Wolf, you're about to get company."

"I see that," growled Wolf, glancing over his own shoulder to see the flashing red and blue lights tailing him. "You better have some horsepower in this truck of yours, runt."

Fox gritted his teeth, savagely turning his wheel over and over, causing his truck to veer to the left amidst the sound of screeching tires.

 _*"Suspect not slowing down, requesting backup to pursuit."*_

" _Bird_! Cut their chatter!" Wolf demanded, rifling through his bag to find his own kind of rifle. Yes, all the puns in that were intentional.

"Their frequency is already scrambled," Adam shouted. "There's no way I can get through. I can alter the traffic lights if that helps."

"Nobody cares about the goddamn traffic lights," spat Wolf, smashing Fox's rear window with the stock of his compact carbine.

"Hey!" Fox snarled. "You're paying for those repairs!"

"You're going to be paying for your bailout, _all_ of _our_ bailouts, and then your funeral if you don't get us out of here!" Wolf retorted.

"Adam, get the lights on our side," Fox informed the blue jay. "Give us all the advantage we can get."

"On it."

The vulpine navigated the rather busy downtown streets with precision and efficiency, careful not to lose more than a split-second of time between himself and the authorities. At this point, he didn't care about his surroundings so long as they didn't cripple his truck in any way, so smashing through street lights, flattening parking meters, and sideswiping parked cars was the price he had to pay to make his getaway. Luckily he had his SUV outfitted with a steel push bumper, allowing for increased protection of his truck's fragile engine and providing an advantage when it came to plowing through his obstacles.

Loud plinks and shattering glass began filling his ears as the encroaching CDF had resulted to using firepower to attempt to apprehend the vehicle. Sheila shrieked as her side window imploded due to the gunfire. Fox ducked behind his seat, keeping his muzzle low to the steering wheel as he peered his eyes above the dash to navigate himself through traffic.

"Aw, fuck you," growled Wolf, opening fire on the pursuing squad cars. He wasn't conservative of ammunition at first, as he unloaded well over twenty rounds into the nearest car, detonating its front tire and causing a spray of blood to coat the windshield from the inside. As if a mighty gust of divine wind caught the metaphorical mainsails, the car suddenly veered to the left, soaring end over end as it rammed into a line of parked cars along the side of the road.

"Save some bullets for Christ's sake!" Fox snapped, forcing himself through an intersection going well over sixty on urban streets.

"Who?"

"It'll take longer for me to explain it than we have time to get away," Fox retorted. "Get them off of us!"

"What do you think I'm doing back here? Having a giant goddamn orgy with Nat and Dahlstrom?"

"I sure wouldn't put you against it!"

"Boys, cut the chit chat," Scarlet announced firmly, pivoting around while pulling her knees up to the seat. As she fought with the cramped interior, she grunted, "You two can flirt later, and maybe, if you're lucky, I'll let you get a room and some peace and quiet. But right now, Fox, keep your eyes on the road and not on my ass, for everyone's sake."

"The hell are you—" Fox started, cutting himself off as he looked in his metaphorical _and literal_ rear view mirror. He saw Scarlet retracting the sunroof, then poking her head and torso above the threshold while facing back towards the pursuing cars. All Fox saw in his mirror was Scarlet's bushy tail and her blatantly defined cheeks. "Ohhhh."

 _*"Suspect is returning fire!"*_

"Wow, these officers are _so_ observant," Leon snickered. "I wonder if they'll radio to dispatch if I flip them off…"

"Not the time, lizard!" Wolf gruffly barked. "Pup, left!"

Fox complied, swerving to the left and inadvertently bumping into oncoming traffic. Yet, the pursuing authorities followed closely despite the speed of the turn. Wolf opened fire as the CDF cars wound the corner, yet none of the cars fell victim to his attack.

*" _Uh, chief, we've got ourselves a six-forty-seven. The chameleon's giving us the bird."*_

 **"** **Cut the chatter, unit twenty-seven."**

 _*"_ _Roger that._ _Suspect evading arrest via drastic measures. I'm gonna try a ten-thirty-nine to apprehend this guy."*_

"Ten-thirty-who?" Sheila echoed curiously.

" _Nine_ , Sheila, meaning they're gonna ram us," Patrik deadpanned, leaning forward in his seat to poke his muzzle around the back seats' headrests. "Your truck better be able to withstand hell, Fox."

"Hold on," was all Fox was able to respond with. Swerving to the right and linking up with a split avenue divided by a thick concrete median, the vulpine started accelerating more and more until the lampposts and street signs lining the sidewalks were nothing but blurs flashing by in his peripheral vision. The pursuing vehicles also gained that same velocity, and then some; attempting to line their front bumpers with Fox's quarter panel. Two cars flanked him, one on his left and encroaching, while the second one hung back and rubbed his push bumper against the back of the SUV.

Fox pumped his brake pedal once, just enough to send the patrol car on his left soaring by and causing the car behind him to slam into his bumper. The sheer force of the bump put Fox back up to his original speed, and he used that advantage to veer left, hooking his own steel bar into the other car's rear tire. Squealing rubber filled the air as Fox performed his own PIT maneuver on the officers chasing him, getting enough force on it to send it into a tailspin. The driver of the car attempted to correct, but instead sent himself barreling towards the concrete median. His poor car didn't have enough leverage to hop the divider, so at the impact of his front left tire on that median, his car popped up, swerved back to bounce off of Fox's SUV again, before beginning a vicious roll overtop the median.

 _*"Unit disabled, I repeat; dispatch, unit disabled. Suspect is getting reckless."*_

" **Ten-four. All units, suspect is exhibiting dangerous driving maneuvers to evade. Requesting that all patrolling units within the area converge to detain the suspect.** "

"Good luck with that," Fox laughed to himself, continuing down the street. A loud burst of shots erupted from the back seat, and as Fox looked into his side view mirror, he saw the last car barreling through parking meters and streetlights with the driver evidently unresponsive.

Something tickled the back of Fox's neck. Swatting the fluffy object, he discovered it was Scarlet's tail suggestively prodding him. "Scarlet, now's not the time for it! I'm driving!"

"Oh I've done worse to someone while driving," Scarlet assured him, continuing to tease the vulpine with her tail.

Just then, at the intersection Fox just soared by, three more cars with lights flashing and sirens wailing joined up with the pursuit, attempting to box in the evading SUV. Scarlet swore and immediately began discharging her handgun, the metal bullets plinking against the car on his left. Wolf pivoted in the small cabin he had, going towards the back right window and shooting at the car on that side. All the while, officers loaded in the cars fired back with their own weaponry. Luckily, Fox's car was dense enough to withstand the beating.

However, one shot from the car trailing his six managed to slip through everything separating that car and Fox. His arm metaphorically caught fire as the bullet passed through the fleshy part of his shoulder cleanly. He roared in pain as the blood from the wound drenched his entire left arm in a sticky red.

"Fox!" Sheila yipped at the sight of the hole in his arm. "Fox, you're hit!"

"No shit!" snarled Fox, pain coursing through his entire body. "Son of a bitch that hurts!"

"Are you okay?" The husky shouted concernedly. "Can you still drive?"

"I'm fine," he answered through clenched teeth, his left arm starting to go numb. "I never wanted this getaway to be easy anyway."

"Fox, right, now!" Scarlet snapped.

Time seemed to slow down right then and there. He saw the intersection closely approaching, completely open without any restrictions hindering it. His eyes flashed between cars, seeing that the right side car was far back enough for him to fly by. Practically in slow motion, Fox fought with his arms to forcefully spin the steering wheel, sending his truck into a slight tailspin as he angled himself towards the open street. Drifting along the asphalt, Fox slammed on the gas and sent his SUV speeding down the other direction, only allowing one other car to react quick enough to pursue. The other two cars sped right by, missing their only opportunity to continue the chase.

 _*"Uh, dispatch, we've got a rolling ten-seventy-three setting up five blocks south of the suspect. Requesting that all available units converge and ten-sixty-five."*_

"Oh you motherfuckers," Fox growled.

"Runt! Bait 'em!" Wolf shouted, attempting to shoot out the tires of the pursuing car while the officer in the passenger seat fired back.

"What?"

"Play their game!" The lupine hollered. "Your truck is a nasty bastard anyway, so just blow through them! They won't expect you to get through!"

"You can't be serious!"

"Just fucking do it!" Wolf snarled, ducking under a few gunshots.

Towards the horizon, Fox could see a line of flashing lights diverting oncoming traffic. They had that entire street roadblocked with squad cars, complete with barriers and a few spike strips, seeing how he could see the glint off of their flashing red and blue lights.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Fox muttered, accelerating towards the block.

Cars began swarming him, boxing him in and leading him towards that line of cars. The more he thought, the more he began to believe that the officers setting this up were downright stupid. His truck, armored and outfitted with a steel push bar, could cut through their roadblock of common squad cars like a sharp broadsword could cut through skin. But, these officers seemed determined to bring the chase to an end, even if this seemed like the most unproductive way of doing so.

Ignoring the throbbing pain in his shoulder and the ache of trashing his reputation in the middle of this terribly illegal chase, Fox managed to tighten his hold on the steering wheel and shouted with a volume that easily surpassed the wail of the sirens and the explosions of gunfire.

"Buckle the fuck down!"

Fox slammed into the roadblock going well over eighty miles an hour, essentially casting the cars he hit aside like toys. He hit two cars, one right on the engine block and the other on its rear quarter panel. The first one exploded into pieces, launching up because of the force Fox's SUV inflicted on it. The other one merely was sent spiraling out of the way. As Fox barely lost any momentum, the pursuing cars got caught up into the roadblock as well, only they had much worse luck getting through. Parts, scrap metal, and fluids were sent scattering at the impact of so many cars smashing together at once. He immediately slammed on the brakes just enough to turn down another street and attempt to evade the ensuing scene.

After putting a safe amount of distance between themselves and the police, Fox turned the car around and backed into an alley. Once the SUV was well covered in shadows, he stopped and cut the engine. Of one mind, the Star Wolf members collectively held their breaths to remain as quiet as possible, even if the action would have no bearing on the outcome of their situation. The near silence set all of the team on edge, refusing to accept that they had completely evaded capture.

In the ensuing silence, they held their tongues, intently listening to the police scanner.

 **"All units, report in. Does anyone have visuals of the suspects?"**

The inquiry was followed by a long list of negatives as each patrol car responded.

The voice heaved a heavy sigh. **"Damn... All cars end pursuit. Return to the suspects' last known location—we'll set up a perimeter there."**

Fox released his pent-up breath along with the rest of his teammates. The Cornerians were finally off their tails, and they were free to move onto their next destination.

"All units, report in," Wolf sneered, mocking the radio operator. While most of the others had escaped unscathed, Fox had experienced otherwise.

"I've uh... got some lead in me," the vulpine gasped through the searing pain in his shoulder.

Concerned for Fox's well-being, Sheila pleaded, "Wolf, can we take him back to the _Vigilant_? We have a med bay there—"

"Nothin' doin'," Wolf grunted as he shook his head. "We can't risk getting caught on our way back to the ship. We'll have to stay at Todd's house 'til things cool down. Leon, take the wheel."

As Leon started to unbuckle his seat, Fox spoke up. "No, I'm not letting that chameleon drive my car again. He's already got blood all the way down the front of my hood. Plus, if you give a maniac like Leon a motorized vehicle, there's no telling how many civilians he'll—"

"Ah shut your trap and go back to licking your wounds, runt. There's no way you can keep driving with a bullet in your shoulder. I'd never do something like that. Hey, I'm not _that_ bad of a slave driver, am I?" Wolf raised his hands, questioningly. "Am I?"

Sheila, Patrik, Adam, and Natalia all avoided the lupine's gaze, refusing to answer. After some coaxing, Leon convinced Fox to trade places with him, and started up the engine. But before he could head down the alley, Fox placed his free paw on the lizard's arm.

"I just wanted to say one last thing while Elarix still has control of my mouth. Sheppard, if you dare make Todd's gay husband Phoenix, so help me you will sleep on the couch for the rest of the year."

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 **Elarix's A/N: I don't haz to write teh hackeys no mores? YAIY!1! Yes, my contract with this story has been fulfilled, and it is time to get back to my own projects. It was a blast working on** ** _ASS;AM_** **, and I will miss the privilege of getting to make fun of Sheppard in his own story. Don't know when we'll collaborate again, but be on the lookout for a parody story from me poking fun at** ** _First Contact, Veria,_** **and just Sheppard in general sometime in the far future. Yes, an entire one-shot dedicated to roasting Shep. Welp, until then, see ya!**

 **Sheppard's A/N: Many thanks to Elarix for his help. This was hella fun, and I do wish to do this again soon. But, for now, this concludes the comedic train-wreck that was the Shep/Elarix colab extravaganza. These next updates will be back to "normal." Take care fellas, and enjoy.**

 **Oh, and keep eyes out for the contest entries. Mine should be up in the next few days, life permitting, of course.**


	8. Cooldown

**A/N: This one took a little longer than I would have liked, but from here on out, updates (hopefully) are more continuous. Then again, I've taken the task of continuing First Contact for a little bit, but as soon as that is over, this story will take priority.**

 **Thanks for the support, and please enjoy. ~Sheppard**

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 **Chapter VIII — Cooldown**

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Bullet-riddled and in apparent disarray, Fox's abused SUV wound through discreet side streets and wide alleyways, inching ever so closer to their intended destination. Fox did nothing but nurse his wound while Leon continuously turned in and out of the dense, grid-like streets in hopes that the aforementioned law enforcement perimeter wouldn't locate him. Nevertheless, his battered truck obeyed its driver's commands, albeit less responsive than what it had done originally.

"I think we've got a flat," Fox abruptly blurted out, gently poking his nose out of the shattered window.

"Who cares about a fucking flat tire?!" shouted Wolf from the very back of the truck.

"Language," Fox grunted, looking on either sides of the street while the chameleon crossed. "We've got a rating to comply with, and we can't do it if you're dropping vulgar bombs like a hockey player."

"Says the guy who said every single profane statement known to man a whole hell of a lot more than once," Wolf retorted.

"Guys," Scarlet moaned tiredly, rubbing her eyes. "Fox, are we almost there?"

"Just another block or two," the vulpine answered, cringing as he felt his shoulder wound again. "Leon, take this next right, and the garage should be just down there."

"Are you okay, Fox?" Sheila asked concernedly, reaching through the gap of his headrest and the side of the truck to gently press on his injured shoulder.

"I'm fine," Fox dismissively answered.

"Here, hold still," the husky requested, and before Fox knew it he felt some bandaging material get rolled around the site of his wound.

"Sheila, don't you think you've fondled him enough today?" Adam grunted shortly.

"Hey, leave her be," Fox shot back. "You're not the one with a hole in your shoulder. She's just getting the bleeding to stop for now."

Defeated, the blue jay retreated, leaving the light copper husky to patch the vulpine up. Roughly three or four minutes later, Leon drove into the designated parking garage—after paying the rather pricy toll—then scoured the area for an open spot, to which he didn't locate one until the fourth floor out of the seven the garage had. As soon as he pulled into the open spot and put the SUV in park, all four doors and the rear cargo door opened simultaneously as the large group filed out and onto the concrete.

Fox investigated his vehicle, to which there were hundreds of bullet holes, pain scrapes, and dents covering the once pristine armored truck. Shaking his head, Fox sighed, "My insurance premiums are probably going to rape me now. Not like they already weren't… just now there's not gonna be any lube."

Wolf kept the back of the SUV open as he sat on the ledge, letting his legs dangle from the relatively tall height. "Everyone all right?"

Sheila suddenly popped up behind Fox, again working on his injured shoulder. "Fox will be okay as soon as I'm done. Hey, Wolf, scoot."

Wolf begrudgingly slid over, letting Fox sit on the other side with his injured shoulder facing outward. The husky smacked at Wolf's arm again.

"Bag."

"Med bag?" inquired the lupine.

Sheila scoffed, flicking her paws in frustration. "No, your gay porn bag. Yes, the bloody med bag; what else would I want?"

Growling, Wolf reached back and grabbed the red backpack nestled in the cluster of suitcases and bags, angrily forcing it at the husky. Sheila took it from him, immediately opening it and scavenging through the contents.

"They've got an advisory up," Patrik announced, scrolling through his smartphone. "Star Wolf sighted in downtown Corneria City. They're doing a vehicle check on an armored black SUV, plate number SF0064, and will post a reward for anyone with information."

"Shit," Fox hissed.

"Language, McCloud," snickered Wolf.

"Shut up," Fox snapped back. "We better bolt. They're gonna scavenge the area until they find us. It's only a matter of time before they start checking apartments and garages."

"Fox, hold _still_ ," Sheila said sternly, rewrapping a new cloth around his injury. The vulpine suddenly felt a chilling, stinging sensation at the site of his wound, instinctively contorting his muzzle in pain. "Sorry, but this will keep you from getting infected."

After the sting simmered down and was replaced with a soothing chill, Fox looked over at the husky and smiled. "Thanks."

"Oh, almost forgot," she stooped over and kissed his shoulder, wiping in in with her thumb. "There. Better?"

Fox grinned at her motherly aura and answered, "It will be now. Thank you."

"Okay, where are we going?" Wolf abruptly interrupted, impatiently tapping his boot against the cement; echoing that awful, irritating sound throughout the cold walls of the garage.

"Fifteenth floor of the Maplefire Tower," Fox answered, pointing down towards the elevators at the very end of the row of cars. "That's where Todd's apartment is. Luckily this garage is connected to it. Follow me."

The vulpine led the way, slowly traversing the slight decline in terrain as he approached the elevator attached to the polar end of the garage. Sheila still clung onto him, pawing at his shoulder just to make certain that his injury was stable, with the rest of Star Wolf lagging behind. As Fox pressed the button to call the elevator to his floor, he pulled out his phone and started to throw in a few numbers.

"Why are we going down?" Natalia asked.

"Ground floor is the only thing that links up with the apartments," Fox unfocusedly answered, holding his phone up to his ear.

"Really?" Wolf grunted, narrowing his eyes. "Honestly, runt, you're more trouble than you're worth. You just gotta take the most difficult option."

"Just be glad you have a place to stay," Fox shot back. As he backed into the elevator, he groaned, looked at his screen, then held it right back up to his ear. "He's not answering."

"Todd?" Scarlet asked, pressing herself into Fox to allow the rest of the team to squeeze in.

"I told him I'd be here after the game," Fox replied, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "I just wanted to give him another warning 'cause of the lockdown and all."

"He'll be fine," Patrik uninterestedly interjected. "In other news, the Majors are trending on Barker, and it's not because of being number one in the league."

"Ooh, ooh," Sheila yipped, barreling through the elevator to poke her face in Patrik's phone. "Am I trending? I put in a few barks about the game before we had to leave."

"Are you kidding me?" Wolf moaned, slapping his forehead. " _That's_ what you care about?"

"Erm… you only got two more followers," the malamute admitted.

"What?" the husky yelped, jerking his arm down. "Oh, come **_on_**!"

As the elevator opened on the ground floor, Sheila immediately broke out, harshly stamping her feet against the ground. Folding her arms in a huff, she whined, "I planned this outfit out for nothing, then! You guys just **_had_** to get in a fight, huh? I probably would have won the fan of the game had you two not put the place into lockdown! Can't you guys go five minutes without getting in trouble with the CDF? _Honestly_?"

"Spitz, shut the hell up!" Wolf snarled, roughly clamping a paw over her muzzle to keep her from speaking. Sheila immediately yipped in pain, but all that came out was a muffled whine as Wolf held her mouth shut. "You get us caught, and you're as good as dead. Keep your mouth shut; got me?"

Sheila whimpered, grunting in accordance, to which Wolf scornfully pushed her aside and slipped through the doors of the tower. As everyone followed the lupine, Fox noticed out of the corner of his eye that the husky had a few tears in her eyes, but he couldn't stay back to help her in any way, as much as he wanted to.

Wolf roughly shoved Fox towards the elevators inside of the tower when he attempted a look back at her. "She'll be fine. Do your thing."

"You're way too hard on her," Fox remarked, pressing his thumb on the elevator button.

"What did I tell you about what I do with my team?" Wolf growled back. "It's none of your business on how I treat them."

"She deserves better than _you_ ," Fox growled back, stepping backwards into the elevator. After pressing the 'fifteen' button, he continued, "You're denying her a lot of freedom, ya know?"

Just like before, the rest of the team piled into the elevator, with many of them pressed up against each other so that everyone and their luggage could fit inside. Wolf took the opportunity to use his forearm to pin Fox against the elevator wall by his neck.

"For the last time, it's none of your business," snarled Wolf, constricting the vulpine's airways. "Now let her be. She's _mine_ , McCloud. _My_ property. You try anything with her, and I mean **_anything_** , I will personally turn you into a fur coat. Now scram."

With that, he shoved him aside, inadvertently making him collide with Scarlet in the other corner of the elevator. The vixen knew with that little contact that Fox's blood was beginning to boil, so she subconsciously draped an arm around his chest to keep him from going after the lupine. Fox noticed her actions, then allowed himself to breathe to calm himself down, up until the elevator stopped and opened up.

Fox took the lead, stepping out of the elevator first into a small carpeted lobby. He immediately walked to the left, entering a large hallway lined on either side with white doors with golden numbers, white walls, and an intricate, multifariously colored carpet spread across the entire length of the hall. Fox stopped halfway down the hall, turned around to tell the rest of the team to wait where they were, and after a collective groan from the others, he continued forward, passing five more doors until he stopped at one marked "1524."

He gently knocked on the door, then took a step back and held his wrist behind his back. A few seconds went by, and nothing happened, so he knocked again with a bit more force. Bobbing back and forth between his heels and toes while bending his knees with the coordination of a machine, Fox waited for what felt like two more minutes before he finally heard footsteps on the other side. He heard the heavy deadbolt unlatch, followed by the chain lock below it, and then finally saw the white door gently peel inwards.

Fox was greeted with a damn-near mirrored reflection within the doorway. An auburn furred vulpine with bright green eyes and a much longer, thicker, and more unkempt mohawk stared back at Fox. Yet, a smile didn't form at first glance. In fact, the vulpine immediately started blushing with a furious and vibrant intensity, which was no wonder considering what he was wearing. A forest green, long-sleeved, woolen turtleneck adorned his frame, extending well beyond his waistline and stopping just above his knees. After that was just his pelt of fluffy fur—nothing else.

"Fox!" hissed the vulpine through clenched teeth, instinctively pulling on the bottom of his turtleneck while tucking his bushy tail between his legs. "What are you doing here?"

"Good to see you again too, Toddy," Fox half-joked. "I thought I told you I'd be here after the game."

"Yeah, but the place went into lockdown," Todd said with a rather vulnerable pitch, practically replicating a feminine tone. Fox still found it kind of ironic—but in a fitting way—that his brother's voice managed to climb so much higher than his own. Then again, after not hearing it for years, he noticed how much of a pain it was on his ears; hearing such a high voice coming from someone of his blood. "I didn't think you would be here so soon."

"I tried to call a few minutes ago," stated Fox, shrugging his shoulders. "Did you not get it?"

"Well…" Todd trailed off, his face turning redder than the scarves Fox always wore as his arms wandered down to his waist. In a volume that Fox had to strain to hear, Todd inched his muzzle forward and whispered, "We were busy, Fox."

"Busy?" Fox echoed curiously.

The other vulpine avoided eye contact. "You… kinda… interrupted us."

Fox instantly widened his eyes. "Oh… … _Oh_ … …That explains the… er…" his eyes combed over his brother's shirt, his own embarrassment surfacing. "Lack."

"Yeah," Todd half-scoffed and half-whimpered, never feeling this embarrassed in his life from the looks of it. "We figured we had enough time since the rink locked down. …Gosh, Fox, I don't mean to be a—"

"It's fine," Fox forced a sheepish grin. "Here, uh, I'll be a nice big brother and let you two… uh… finish up."

Todd blushed even redder, if it was physically possible. "No, Fox, please, come inside… Er, make yourself at home, I mean. I can tell him that—"

"Todd, seriously," Fox smirked, stepping away from the door. "I'll give you two another five minutes. I need to take care of something anyway."

Todd himself awkwardly backed away from the doorway. "Ah, jeez, Fox, I'm really sorry. I won't let it happen again, I promise."

Fox let the door shut, then turned back to walk towards his team. Luckily, they were all preoccupied with a discussion in the lobby just outside the elevators to see the exchange down the hall. He poked his head around the corner, sheepishly grinning at the group.

"Five minutes," the vulpine said, meriting another collective groan of disbelief and frustration from the group. Wolf had the biggest reaction out of all of them, obviously. Snarling, he stormed through the group and angrily approached Fox, who tucked away and backed down the hallway.

"You said we would have a place to stay when we got here!" Wolf roared through clenched teeth, fighting to keep his voice down.

"We do," the fox said, holding up his hands. "Todd just needed time to get the place cleaned up, that's all."

"Cleaned up from all the fucking they do in there!" Wolf snapped, slowly chasing after the vulpine. "I'm not sleeping in a bed or on a couch covered with your disgusting brother's DNA!"

"Language, O'Donnell," Fox snapped back.

"Wolf, hey, calm down," Sheila gently interrupted, approaching the lupine with a plastic bag with a vial of medications. "Your blood pressure meds."

"Oh," Wolf grunted, sifting through the bag until he found a pill about the size of his fingernail, then swallowed it without any liquid aid. He continued to give Fox a death glare as the vulpine stopped at Todd's door.

"Have you ever thought about enrolling in an anger management class?" Fox asked.

"Have you ever considered being in a normal family?" Wolf countered.

"Wow, good comeback," Fox snickered to himself. "Keep the trash talk for the playground, m'kay? I'd like to relax while we're here, and I can't do it when you're being a problem."

"Oh, so _I'm_ the problem?" Wolf showed off his arm-span in a show of dominance. "I didn't put all of us in danger by going to a goddamn hockey game."

"And I didn't come up with the ingenious idea of trying to wipe your names from the entire Lylatian archives," Fox retorted. "Or hire a half-assed team of egotistical, unprepared, and unconformable mercenary wanna-bes that couldn't work together for more than five minutes even if you paid them."

Wolf growled menacingly, baring his teeth in the process. "Language, McCloud. Oh, and what would you call Star Fox? 'Cause I sure know; a half-assed team of egotistical, unpre—"

"At least we had the cohesion to singlehandedly wipe out _your_ half-assed team, thank you," Fox interrupted, a smug grin creasing his muzzle. "One, watch your language, and two, if you ask me, that's—"

"How do you explain bird-brain being an egotistical asshole?"

"Language," Fox interrupted.

"—Or the frog being an unprepared twit?" Wolf continued as if he didn't even hear him. "Or you, McCloud, being an unconformable, mercenary wanna-be?"

"Sure, call _me_ unconformable while you were the one that chose to hire me because of my résumé," the vulpine challenged, the group behind himself and Wolf becoming more and more uncomfortable with the bickering, yet out of fear, they stayed silent.

"Do you really think I'd trust anyone else?" snapped Wolf, starting to rub at his eyes. "All of the other for-hire mercs are probably undercover agents waiting to arrest me. At least I know the feds wouldn't stick a chip up your ass and call you a surveillance camera. You'd probably like it."

Fox smirked smugly. "Kinky foxes like it kinky, I suppose."

"You're fucking disgusting," Wolf hacked.

"For the last time, _language_ ," grunted Fox.

Wolf wanted to bark out yet another snarky comment, but all he did was suddenly let out a massive yawn. In an instant, Wolf went from seething anger to apparent grogginess, seemingly trying to stay on his feet as he turned around.

"Wolf?" Natalia called out curiously.

"Sheila," he started out, his legs beginning to give out. "What… did you give me…?"

"Your blood pressure stabilizer," answered the husky.

Wolf wasn't even awarded the opportunity to reply, as he suddenly started leaning forward until he fell face-first into the floor, out like a broken lightbulb. Curiously, Sheila looked at the vial he had taken his medication from, gasped, then after a second of looking at her teammates, she let a lighthearted giggle escape her lips.

"Oops, that was his sleep aid," she said, stuffing the medications back into the appropriate bag. "Well, least we don't have to listen to him anymore."

A few second of awkwardly tense silence ensued, before the rest of Star Wolf started nodding and grunting in approval. Patrik stepped forward to lift the lupine onto his shoulders, and seconds later, Todd's door opened with the aforementioned vulpine now wearing some baggy black loungewear below his long turtleneck.

"Sorry Fox, we're ready now," Todd said, turning his head down the hallway to see Fox's company. His eyes instantly shot open. "Wait, that's—"

Fox instantly hissed and stuffed a paw in his face, forcing him into his apartment. "Yes, I know, that's Star Wolf. We're here because we need a place to hide."

" _Fox_!" Todd said in a hoarse whisper after his brother's hand retracted. "Why are you with them?"

"It's a long story," Fox answered, gesturing for the team that had gathered in the doorway to enter. "I'll tell you in a bit."

Todd reluctantly obliged, tail flicking in anxiety. "Make yourself at home, I guess," he mumbled, stepping out of the half-hallway they were in. "Last one in relocks the door, please."

From the front door they entered in, a large and rather spacious living room took up well over half of the allotted space in the back left corner, while a kitchen area rested behind it in the right. The very back wall was completely made out of glass, allowing for a breathtaking view of the Cornerian Ocean and its surrounding beaches and cliff sides, not to mention the gorgeous sunsets that could form as the Lylatian sun would disappear underneath the oceanic horizon. A singular master bedroom, walled off from the rest of the apartment, took up the space off to the side between the front door and the living room, while the bathroom room resided on the opposite side, inadvertently creating a small hallway between the front door and the living room. In the back corner was a guest room, pressed up against the kitchen boundaries and the glass wall.

"Where do you want bitchy-boy?" Patrik asked Fox, swaying in a way that made Wolf's limp arms and tail swing with him.

"Just… stick 'em on the couch, I guess," Fox answered. The malamute lugged the unconscious lupine over to the loveseat pressed against the wall of the bedroom, unceremoniously flinging him onto it. His right arm rolled off, causing his claws to dig into the carpeted floor as a bit of drool leaked out of his muzzle and onto the upholstery.

"That's one hell of a sleep aid," Fox remarked.

"Strongest legal drug out there," Natalia informed him, dropping to her knees by Wolf's sleeping body. She ran a paw through his messy mohawk, cooing, "Aww, my poor baby… you had a rough day, didn't you?"

"Usually you tell him that the morning after," commented Patrik, meriting a glare from the coyote.

"Fox," Todd spoke up by the kitchen, tapping his claws on the granite to get his attention. Fox slipped away from the group to allow them to get settled down. As he approached, he held out his arms to the younger vulpine, who couldn't resist the comforting family embrace even if he was a bit angered with his older brother's antics.

"Thank you so much," Fox blurted out. "I really owe you one for this."

"You've really got a lot of explaining to do," Todd stated as Fox pulled away. "I don't hear from you in years, but as soon as you prove to me you _aren't_ dead, you're with a team of outlaws that tried to kill you years back if I remember correctly."

"Like I said, it's a long story," Fox breathed, ears pinned against his head. "Basically, they asked for me. Well… they kinda forced me in, I guess."

Todd curiously cocked his head. " _They_ did?"

"They hired me. They're paying me because they needed my CDF registration information to get into the servers," Fox relayed in a hushed voice. "But when their software sh— _crapped_ the bed, they needed to manually wipe the names. Enter me, Scarlet, and eventually Vince."

"I wondered why she was here," Todd muttered, his eyes drifting over to the scarlet vixen sitting in the armchair stuffed in the corner of the room by the window. She sniffed her catsuit, contorted her muzzle in disgust, and then discretely started pulling the zipper down.

"She's my key to Vince," Fox informed him. "Can't get to him any other way without blowing cover."

"So, this is all just to wipe names from the server?" Todd inquired, glancing at the unconscious lupine. "He's got a long list of offences on his dossier; no way can it be _that_ easy to push him underground."

"It really hasn't been all that easy," Fox admitted. "We had to go to that Majors game to avoid blowing our cover with mom and dad, and then we actually _did_ blow our cover and got the feds on us."

"I wondered about the bandage here," remarked Todd, gently pawing at the blood stained cloth bound around his brother's shoulder. "You get shot or something?"

"Yeah," Fox cringed. "I think the damn bullet is still in there."

"You're in luck, buddy," Todd grinned with his first instance of happiness thus far. "Jared is in the middle of training should there be an emergency at his job. He can take the bullet out and patch you up, no prob." At that, Fox breathed a sigh of relief while Todd walked over to the closed bedroom door and tapped his claws on the white wood.

"Hey, kit, we need you out here," Todd said in a soft tone.

" _Kit_?" Adam muttered under his breath.

"Just a sec, foxy," a voice on the other side promptly answered.

"Well, I was just about to say that Todd wears the panties, but I guess both do," the avian whispered to Patrik.

"That's sexist," remarked Patrik, disinterestedly scanning his tablet.

"I mean, hey, I was just— wait, how does…?" Adam trailed off, narrowing his eyes. "How do you classify that as sexist? And… which one would that offend?"

"You're assuming that everyone that uses gooey nicknames to address their lover wears panties," the malamute continued. "If that's the case, then nearly everyone that's ever been in a relationship wears 'em. Or would you not know because you've never been with one longer than five minutes?"

"First off: fuck you; I've held multiple relationships for months on end," retorted Adam. "Second: all I was saying was that they're acting a bit… feminine, that's all."

"That's sexist," Patrik repeated. "Some girls don't like the feel of 'em. My last girl wore boxers to work every day. Sometimes had to borrow mine, even though they were huge on her."

"You sure your last girlfriend was a girl?" Adam snickered.

Again, Patrik answered with, "That's sexist."

Finally, the door to the bedroom opened. Cloaked in a navy blue blanket that dragged against the ground, a sandy brown and light gray furred fox stepped out and immediately rubbed his cheek against Todd's. Both Jared—as his name was—and Todd stood at the same height, but Todd appeared taller because of his iconic mohawk that seemed to run in the family. Upon seeing Fox—after letting his affection show for a few more seconds—Jared gasped and flung the blanket off of his shoulders, launching a plume of gray, shoulder length hair into the air as he immediately embraced the other vulpine.

"Oh my goodness, Fox; it's so nice to see you again," he sang, shamelessly laying his muzzle on Fox's injured shoulder. "I haven't seen you forever. I think the last time I saw you was at mine and Toddy's wedding, but then we never heard from you again, and I couldn't help but think about you every day. Like, I'd ask Todd, "hey, you hear from Fox at all?" every week, and he'd always say no, so I just thought you might have forgotten about us, but then I remembered that you'd never forget your family like that so I just patiently waited to see you again, and now here you are! Gosh, I can't remember the last time I was this happy to see someone before!"

"You're killing me," Fox hissed under his breath, his shoulder igniting in a fire only comparable to hell opening up in his muscles.

"Hey, hey, Jay-Jay, he's hurt," Todd interrupted, gently picking the other vulpine off of him. "He got shot on the way here."

"Oh my god!" yipped Jared, covering his muzzle with both paws. "Fox, I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you? I hope I didn't hurt you. I don't know if I'd be able to live with myself if I knew I hurt **_the_** Fox McCloud just being my usual, stupid self. Please tell me you're okay. Are you?"

"I'm fine," Fox cringed again. "I just have a bullet in my shoulder, and I was just wondering if—"

"Oh, oh, I can take it out!" Jared broke in, bouncing on his feet with an unprecedented amount of energy that made Sheila seem tame. "I know how to do that! I took some courses, and now I can do minor surgeries and stitching whenever I want. Well, I have to have my tools first, but I've always got some here, and in my car, and at work, and—"

"Yeah, yeah, that's great," Fox mumbled tiredly. "Can you take it out please?"

"Sure, sure sure sure," Jared furiously nodded his head. He pointed at the door separating the bathroom from the short hallway. "My kit is in there, and it shouldn't take me long at all. Do you need some painkillers? I think I got a few left over from the last time I went to the doctor after me and Toddy got a bit too rough with the—"

"Okay, that's a bit too much, buddy," Todd chuckled sheepishly. "I think I've got some whiskey left over from our last anniversary party. Want a shot to numb the pain?"

"Please?" said Fox, clawing at the bandaging.

"I barely drink," Jared announced, watching Todd pull out the shot glasses and about a two-thirds of a bottle of whiskey from one of the upper cabinets. He disinterestedly continued, more entranced with the swaying of Todd's bushy tail as he reached for the glasses, and wasn't too discrete with his attraction either. "Although alcohol makes for a fun night. Isn't that right, Toddy?"

"I take my comments back," Patrik muttered at Adam under his breath, both men with faces twisted in awkward disgust.

"Anyone else want one while I got it out?" Todd asked.

"Sure," Natalia finally broke out of whispering sweet nothings into the unconscious lupine's ear, approaching the small island countertop on the edge of the kitchen tile.

"Are you even old enough to drink?" Fox chirped.

Natalia avoided answering his question, opting to retort, "I'm old enough to beat the shit out of you, how's that?"

Fox's eyes widened with a sarcastic, smug smile. "Hey, language, missy. It's not my fault; I didn't feed your baby daddy animal tranquilizers."

"Oh, you know what, McCloud?" Natalia snapped, her ears fidgeting with her skyrocketing anger. "One, I won't have kids yet because—"

"Because you haven't hit puberty, is that right?" Fox only antagonized, enjoying seeing the little coyote get flustered.

"Be- _cause_ Wolf actually knows what he'd doing unlike you screw-ball horny-ass foxes!" Natalia yipped. "What, you take it up the ass too, Fox?"

"It's super fun, isn't it?" Jared added with a wide, oblivious smile.

"Hey; that's my job to enjoy the kinky stuff!" Scarlet piped in from the opposite side of the room. "And don't you be stealing FurFur's gimmick either!"

"Way to break the fourth wall _again_ , Scarlet," Adam grumbled.

"Can we please **_not_** talk about this?" Fox moaned in disgust. "Now, Natasha, I'm sorry—"

"Natalia," corrected the coyote.

"Whatever; everyone always butchers your name anyway," muttered Fox. "In case you haven't seen, I'm in a bit of pain."

"Not enough if you ask me," Natalia retorted, swiping her shot as she strutted back over to Wolf's prone body.

Todd handed Fox one of the glasses filled with a nearly translucent brown liquid. "Here. Jared, go ahead and take care of him."

"Right away, Toddy boy," sang Jared, gently leading Fox towards the small bathroom nestled in the corner of their small apartment. As the click of the closing door reached the rest of the room, Sheila gently poked out from behind Scarlet's armchair, ears folded back and eyes wide as if to examine the room.

"Is the fighting over?" she whimpered.

"Yes, you can come out now," Todd said in a gentle voice. As she slipped out and trotted up to the vulpine, Todd graciously extended his hand. "You must be Sheila, right? I heard Fox mention you when we talked the other day."

"Aww, what'd he say?" asked Sheila with excitement. "Did he say I was cute? Because _I_ think I'm pretty adorable."

"Er, I think I'll let him restate what he said," the vulpine said in an attempt to deflect potential heat. "But _I_ think you're adorable."

Sheila blushed, flicking her paw in her hair to create a plume of luscious locks. "Everybody does," boasted the husky, violently wagging her curled tail in a way that could break bone should she desire to.

"Well, I'd like to meet the rest of your team, if you don't mind," Todd requested, combing over his living room to examine the people strewn about. Yet, he stopped when he got to the window on his right, freezing in place at what stood before him. During the entire exchange moments earlier, Scarlet had managed to remove the entirety of her catsuit and stood with nothing but two strategically placed black boxes to mask her assets from the viewing audience.

"Oops, sorry: I'm just here for fan-service," she said, giggling as she watched Todd's face start blazing red while Sheila's jaw gradually began lowering in formation of a smile. "Do you have a washing machine here? My suit smells awful, and I didn't know I was going to be spending the night here."

"I saw a laundry room on the ground floor before we got in the elevator," Patrik's voice informed her.

"Can you please not go down in the lobby butt-naked?" Todd nearly whined, trying with all his might not to let his eyes wander.

"Oh come on, I'll be quick," Scarlet insisted. "It's not like anyone will get mad at me for doing this."

"How did you get those?" Sheila asked, eyes narrowing at the black boxes.

"What, this?" Scarlet pointed to the box covering her chest.

"Yeah!" she nodded. "What even is that?"

"They're only censorship edits," replied Scarlet. "They keep our rating down so that the author doesn't have to describe our lady bits."

"Ohhh," Sheila mumbled. She suddenly perked up again, glancing down at her jersey. "Wait, so if I…" she grabbed the bottom of her long jersey and pulled it all the way up, folding it under her neck. "Hey, look, I got them now too! See, Todd?"

Todd immediately covered his eyes with his paws.

After straightening out her jersey, curiosity overtook her as she used one of her clawed digits to peer down her pants. "Hey, I don't see one down here."

"It's gotta be out in the open," Scarlet explained.

"Oh, right, right, right," she muttered to herself, gently pulling her pants below her waistline. "Oh, aha! _There's_ that censor box! Huh, that's really funny."

Meanwhile, Todd vacated the kitchen area, mumbling, "I'm a married man, I'm a married man," over and over and over again.

Adam's head poked above the back of the couch to look at the two girls. "Does it work for guys too?"

"Adam, I swear to god if you pull your pants down I will rip your penis off and choke you with it," grumbled Patrik.

"Don't worry, I'll be right back," Scarlet insisted, draping her dirty catsuit over her shoulder. Both instances of the word tail were swaying as Scarlet strutted out of the apartment, swiping a spare key from the rack as she slipped away.

A long string of drool was hanging out of Sheila's muzzle as Todd turned around to look at her. "Oh glorious fox butt," Sheila murmured in a trance-like state. "Please tell me your secrets."

A throaty cough resounded from behind her, suddenly becoming aware that Fox was standing behind her with fresh stitching in his shoulder. Yet, that didn't stop the husky from beginning a tirade.

"Even _you_ have a butt, Fox!" she flicked her paws yet again. "And where's mine?" she asked to nobody in particular, twisting her neck around to look back at her tail. "Did mine just take a vacation and not come back? Hey, don't laugh at me!" snapped the husky, referring to Adam and Patrik's chuckling. "I don't have a butt! Look, it's back—" she began to slowly guide her paw down her spine. "—back, back, tail, and then leg! No butt!"

"Sheila, I think your butt looks nice," Jared shyly commented.

"That's the thing: I can't be complimented on my butt because I don't have one!" Sheila groaned. "Can I just take some of my hair and stuff it in my pants to make a butt? Better yet, can I have the author take some of this hair away and give me a butt?"

"But your hair is beautiful," Jared added, continuing his complementing string. "It's what makes you, _you_."

"I want a butt though," the husky muttered in defeat, sadly trudging away from the kitchen. "I'm a skinny husky with no butt and too much hair."

"Anyway," Fox interrupted, attempting to bring order into the situation. "We should all take a page out of Wolf's book—" here he spared a glance over to the lupine in question, still sleeping soundly. "—and get some rest."

"Good idea," Patrik agreed, even though his tone would imply otherwise. He kicked his feet up onto the coffee table and let his head fall into the upholstery. One by one, each of the Star Wolf members began arranging themselves all over the room. Natalia, obviously, managed to wedge herself onto the couch and into Wolf's limp grasp. Leon crashed in the armchair Scarlet was in moments prior just seconds after Todd extinguished the lights. After twenty minutes or so, the only ones awake were Fox, Sheila, and Scarlet—who had returned wearing her newly cleaned catsuit—aside from the two actual residents of the apartment.

"I'll be back with you in a moment, Jay-Jay," Todd told his vulpine husband, planting a kiss on his cheek before the latter disappeared into the bedroom. "Fox," he turned to face his brother. "I'll try to help you when I can. You may be stubborn and stupid, but you're my brother, okay? I'll do what I can."

"I don't want to drag you into this," Fox told him. "I only needed a safe-house for one night. We'll be gone tomorrow, I promise."

Todd nodded. "Well, goodnight," he said, waving himself away.

Scarlet yawned. "Well, Fox? Have you anything to say?"

"What? You're not expecting an apology, are you?" Fox curiously asked.

"You kinda dragged me into this, in case you forgot," Scarlet huffed, folding her arms. "I was perfectly content with staying in _Sierra Foxtrot_ , thank you."

"Don't worry, you'll be gone once we get to Vince," Fox assured her. "And when I say gone, I don't mean it in that way. I was told under explicit commands not to brutally murder you in any way, shape, or form."

"Good," Scarlet nodded contently. "So, what about now?"

"Yeah, what about now, Fox?" Sheila echoed. "I'm tired."

"So am I," Fox sighed. "Well, Todd said he had a guest room."

Sheila needed no more incentive than that, for as soon as Fox reminded her, she bolted off and disappeared through the mentioned threshold. Scarlet merely sighed and followed Fox towards the room.

"She's a real character," the red vixen mumbled.

"Look who's talking," retorted Fox with his signature snarky smile. He flicked the light switch upon entering the room, and was greeted with a twin sized bed, nightstand, and dresser. Sheila had already made herself comfortable; in those short few seconds, she had ridded herself of her jersey and pants and laid face-first on the bed with a new pair of delicates adorning her body. Once the light turned on, however, Sheila quickly flipped over and stared directly at Fox.

"I don't see how this is going to work," she said with a slow, hesitant tone. "This bed is a bit on the… small side."

Scarlet nudged Fox. "Well, I'll go see if Todd and Jared can spare some room. Fox, she's all yours."

Fox immediately grabbed her shoulder before she could escape. "Scar, what are you doing?" he whispered at her, confusion prevalent in his eyes.

"Hey, you and I are already a power couple in a different timeline," said Scarlet, a devious little smirk creasing half of her delicate muzzle. "I'm not bitter about this, okay? Just know that you and I are the One True Pairing™."

Fox smirked and shook his head. "Whatever you say. Just don't go in there and try to turn either one of them straight."

"I can't promise anything," she cooed before slipping out of the room, closing the door in her wake.

"This is just like yesterday, Fox!" Sheila quietly yipped, visibly trembling with excitement. "Remember that?"

"Yup," Fox admitted, peeling his blood-stained shirt off of his body, cringing as the material rubbed up against his fresh wound. "Damn that hurts."

"Oh, here," said Sheila, rolling off of the bed to meet up with Fox. She leaned over and planted another gentle kiss on the site of his bandages. "There, that should help."

Fox chuckled sheepishly. "Thanks again," he said, making the mistake of looking up at her. Those intoxicating eyes again. For whatever reason, those two sky blue pools staring back at him were so mind-numbingly brilliant to him. Despite the stories she's told, they still had a glimmer to them that Fox couldn't help but become drawn to as if he were a moth being attracted to a flame. That same fire set his senses ablaze, and it wasn't long before the sensory detonation simmered down enough to allow Fox to put two and two together to find out why he was acting like this.

He wasn't falling for her, was he? Did he really see something so attractive in her?

The more he stared, the more a clear and definitive answer was being molded for said questions. Her new attire hugged her nearly flat chest and behind to try to give them the illusion of being bigger than they actually were, but even so, it added yet another layer of her cuteness aside from her eruption of luxurious hair and those aforementioned eyes. Tail wagging and smile prevalent, Sheila broke the silence with an adorable giggle, setting Fox's cheeks on fire when he realized he had been staring.

"Sorry, just tired," Fox lied through his teeth, so badly that Sheila noticed his blatant excuse straightaway.

"In that case, we should probably get to bed," she said, peeling the comforter back before crawling onto the sheets. When Fox failed to move, she patted the covers next to her. "Come on, we got a busy day tomorrow."

"Right," Fox muttered, bashfully ridding himself of his filthy clothes aside from the essentials. Clearly embarrassed about being so revealed, Fox tentatively stepped towards the bed, avoiding eye contact by checking his phone.

"Fox, come on, I'm getting cold over here," whined the husky, patting his side of the bed again. Gently, Fox slipped underneath the covers and set his head down, immediately sighing at the comfort that enveloped his body. This was the first time he could finally relax all day. His pains that weren't numbed by the shot of whisky earlier slowly dulled into weak aches as he melted into the comfort of the bed.

Confliction quickly engulfed Fox when Sheila immediately curled up to him, muzzle poking into his neck and arms being wound around his body. He wanted to enjoy being cuddled in such a comforting and needy manner, but at the same time, it felt totally awkward. His heart was beginning to beat quicker, and Sheila noticed it.

"Hey, it's okay; it's just me," she assured, a weak giggle escaping her lips. "Just making sure we both stay on this little bed."

Fox couldn't respond; he was too preoccupied with not making an embarrassing noise or gesture while being spooned by the larger husky. He liked the feeling and felt comfortable because of who it was, but the latter made it all the more conflicting for him. Sheila was "Wolf's property," and if he couldn't get his juvenile hormone spikes under control, Wolf would legitimately murder him.

"I like this," Sheila said after a moment of silence other than their respective breathing. Fox felt every breath slip out of Sheila's nose ruffle the fur on his neck, tickling as much as it was stimulating and relaxing.

"You do?" Fox asked.

"I've never held a guy like this before," she continued, her hands slowly and mindlessly mapping out Fox's upper body. Under her breath—which, in Fox's position, she could've talked normally and he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference—Sheila whispered, "Especially someone I like."

Fox opted to play it cool and pretend he didn't hear it, but in actuality, his mind just detonated. It made his thoughts scream to be let loose, but in turn, it caused even more hesitance to brew. He didn't want to make his own position known so soon, for fear of creating even more complications with his team. But, restraining his thoughts would prove to be even more detrimental.

"Well, goodnight, Foxy," said Sheila, nuzzling closer to him. "Sweet dreams."

"You two," Fox replied, listening for the husky's breathing to simmer down to signal that she had fallen asleep. Once he registered that she was in fact bound for dreamland, Fox let out a quiet sigh, followed by one more comment before attempting to fall asleep himself.

"I hope everyone bought tickets, because the ship is sailing…"


	9. WIGBY

**A/N: Oi, it's been way too long since this was updated. I got caught in a loop of wanting to make too many jokes and it wasn't advancing the story in any way, shape, or form. I seem to have found a nice balance, but I don't know how long this will last. *shrug***

 **Hope you guys enjoy regardless, and again, I apologize for the four, almost five month wait on this. :)**

 **EDIT: I fixed it Drake, don't worry. Also fixed a little section of the abbreviations that the doc manager didn't translate right.**

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[҉]

 **Chapter IX — WIGBY**

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Seemingly just as fast as Fox fell asleep for the night, he was right back up and awake again. The reason for this was his phone, the chirp and accompanying vibration against the nightstand causing enough of a disturbance to wake the exhausted vulpine. Adding insult to injury, his phone displayed it was only a quarter 'til nine, signifying he had only received roughly five hours of restless sleep when taken into consideration how many times he had woken up during the night. However, what kept him from falling back asleep was the notification listed underneath the date and time.

 **Lil' Sis** **:** Come to the hospital on Corneria NOW. Dad is hurt BAD.

 _Shit, I totally forgot about dad— wait, what!? He's hurt!?_

Panic quickly settled in for Fox, but his mental knee-jerk reaction was hindered by the physical predicament he found himself in. His awaking senses allowed him to feel the soft touch of silky fur against his back, shoulders, and neck. He looked down to see Sheila's muzzle still burrowed below his jawline and her arms wound around his torso like an adorable straight-jacket. Her silent breathing washed over his sensitive neck fuzz, causing waves of oddly stimulating chills to span the length of his spine.

Now how was he going to get out? Luckily Sheila's hold was more of a friendly, comforting hold rather than needy and possessive, so moving her arms would not be an issue. However, her muzzle was only being supported by his neck. And, in moving his leg, he realized her tail was wound within their legs as well. He didn't want to wake her peaceful slumber, but there wasn't going to be a way to escape her presence without doing so. Plus, he wouldn't ever hear the end of it from her if he escaped without telling her.

"Psst," Fox started out as a faint whisper, almost inaudible to his own ears. "Sheila… Sheila, wake up…"

No response from the husky; she just continued to breathe out of her nose.

"Sheila, let go please," whispered a desperate Fox, his voice slowly climbing in volume. "Can we cuddle some other time? I need to go."

As before, Sheila stayed oblivious.

"Okay, Sheila; you're cute and all, but this is too much," Fox began to breathe more hoarsely as he attempted to wiggle out of her grasp. "I don't like being the little spoon here… Okay, okay, I'll let you be the big spoon if you let go… …If you don't, I won't let you do this anymore— _come on Sheila_."

Still, the husky didn't even recognize a slightest bit of his attempted disturbance. Fox began to get wilder with his movements, considering that he just found out how much of a heavy sleeper she was. He used his tail and started batting at Sheila's backside. Though, he didn't realize that with how he was positioned, his tail was swatting directly underneath the base of her own tail.

She murred in her sleep and unconsciously mumbled, "Mmm, get it… Fill me up, you sexy beast."

"What the fu— _AH_!" Fox initially blurted out at full volume before bolting out of her embrace. His impulsiveness rewarded him by falling straight out of the bed, nicking the side of his head on the nightstand in the process. On the bright side, the ensuing racket finally broke Sheila out of her detached slumber. With an adorable yawn, the husky stretched her arms out and sat up, a tangled plume of hair following her.

She looked over at Fox lying on the floor. "I didn't take up _all_ the bed, did I?"

"No, it was just… uh, allergies; yea."

Sheila flipped the covers back and rolled out of bed. Her ears perked when she heard some clatter from beyond the door. "I think the guys are awake out there already. I'll go see what's up."

Still lying on the ground, Fox watched as her swishing tail slipped out of the doorway.

Several minutes later, after Fox had put on a fresh set of clothes and groomed his fur, he exited the small guest bedroom and stepped out into a crowded living room and kitchen. Both his brother and brother-in-law were in the kitchen, fixing up a shit-ton of breakfast while his ever-more-distant cousin watched on ravenously. Oddly enough, instead of focusing in on the cooking bacon as if it was his trigger, his eyes gravitated towards Sheila, who was shamelessly standing in her lingerie and sifting through a box of—

"Whoa…" Sheila gasped, holding up handfuls of various and brightly colored wristbands. "Jared, I didn't know you were a Swan Cena fan!"

Jared blushed redder than the cherry red band the husky pulled around her wrist. "It's a guilty pleasure," he said bashfully with his ears folded back. "I try to get Todd to watch, but—"

"It's okay, don't get me wrong," Todd interrupted. "It's kind of silly though. Well, then again, it matches you in a way."

Jared smiled brightly. "Aww, Toddy…"

Everyone cringed when Wolf let loose a snarling growl. "I'm not in the mood, foxes."

"Honestly, boss, when _are_ you in the mood?" Adam commented.

Fox ignored the bickering teammates and slipped into the kitchen. He leaned on the kitchen's island counter and eyed the food already prepared. His eyes flashed in either direction, then in one fluid, split-second motion, he swiped a single piece of bacon and crammed it into his maw.

"Guys, look!" Sheila yipped, showcasing her arms. She managed to pile on wristband after wristband to the point where every inch of her arms were covered in the scratchy material. Giggling, she continued, "I'm a rainbow!"

"You look like the Michelin Man at a Pride march," Patrik deadpanned.

Sheila glared at the malamute. "Oh, sure; be a buzzkill. You better watch your mouth before I FU you through that table."

"For one, that's not PG, and two, I'd love to see you try, sweetie."

" ** _Everyone_** should know by now not to call me sweetie!" yelped Sheila, still glaring at the canine. "And you: Swan Cena once lifted up a five-hundred pound bear onto his shoulders, so I could do that to you."

Adam cocked his head. "Well, by that logic, Sheila, you'd be able to do anything someone else did just by impersonating them. I'm sure you couldn't be as great of a pole-dancer as Scarlet just because you wear one of her tight catsuits."

"Oh, that reminds me!" the husky belted out, seemingly ignoring the blue jay as she clambered onto the couch between him and Patrik. "Scarlet, where in the world do you get those amazing catsuits? I've always wanted to get one just like yours."

Scarlet merely chuckled. "I'm not telling. I don't want to give Sheppard any more fanservice to work with."

"Aw, boo," Sheila pouted, sticking out her lower lip as she rested her muzzle atop the back of the couch. "You're no fun."

"We don't need any more fetish material here anyway," Fox commented. "Anyway, Wolf, listen—"

"What do you want, runt?" the lupine growled.

"I need to drop by the hospital real quick," the vulpine answered surely. "My sister texted me and said that my dad is hurt. Must've happened at the rink. I need to see him."

"Oh no you ain't," Wolf retorted, swiftly clambering up to his feet. "Not after that whole incident yesterday. In case you forgot, it was _you_ that blew our cover."

"Ah jeez, not this argument again," Fox moaned to himself. "Sheila, get the drugs."

"You almost got us caught, McCloud," Wolf interjected. "Who's to say that you'll get us spotted for real if you go out again?"

"I'm just going to the hospital," Fox dismissively waved Wolf off as he inched for the far countertop. "If they ask, I'll just magically turn into my stunt double." At this, Fox grabbed Todd's thick-framed glasses from the counter and draped them over his eyes. "See?" he asked rhetorically, a confident smirk on his face as he pushed the glasses farther up his muzzle.

Todd shrugged. "He _does_ look like me."

"I don't care," Wolf interrupted. "Besides, we need to get moving. You've got Scarlet, and the sooner she gets us to Vince, the sooner we can quit hiding out with these stupid idiots."

Jared gasped. "What did he just call us?" he asked to the other vulpine.

"I think he just called us idiots," Todd answered.

"Hey!" barked Wolf. "I didn't call you idiots, I called you _stupid_ idiots." Loosing no momentum, he turned to Fox and pointed. "McCloud—no, not you," he turned right back around towards Todd with his finger still extended, but he merely shrugged it off and continued making breakfast. "You're staying here."

"Wolf, come on," Sheila scoffed. "Just let him see his dad for a little bit. I promise he'll be back as soon as he's done."

"Can it, marshmallow," the lupine snapped.

"She's right, Wolf," Fox stated flatly. "I'm not gonna try anything. Hell, you can send one of your guys with me just to be sure."

Wolf returned a less-than friendly glare. Surely he was skeptical with his narrowed eyes, but over time, noticing Fox's unrelenting stance, he eventually snapped his fingers and pointed at the couch.

"Kajær; Dahlstrom," he commanded. "Go with 'im. Don't let him try _anything_."

As the two stood up and walked over to Fox, Wolf pawned off two different tablets to the both of them. "While you're waiting, might as well try to sort out the system architecture. We still need to find a way to attack the servers."

As the three of them sorted out the extra jobs, Scarlet blurted out, "I'll stay here and entertain our guests."

At this, Todd let loose a mild whimper and snaked his arms around Jared. "Jay, please give me strength for this."

"Don't worry, it'll be off-screen," Jared assured.

* * *

[҉]

* * *

The team of Fox, Adam, and Patrik soon filed out of the apartment with their appropriate belongings. As Fox spearheaded the group down the hall, Patrik spared a glance at the tablet Adam was holding and made a vaguely irritated face.

"How come you get the big screen? Are you trying to compensate for something?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "It's just the one Wolf gave me."

"So Wolf is trying to cover something up for you?"

Disgruntled, Adam grunted, "Okay, fine, you want the big tablet for those big-ass paws of yours?"

Patrik merely smirked. "No, you still need it. Something needs to throw shade on that tiny—"

"How about this?" interrupted Adam as the group stopped to file into the elevator. He curled up his fingers. "Winner gets the big screen."

"I know how it works," Patrik deadpanned as Fox punched in the ground floor button. As the elevator descended, the two teammates held out balled hands. In unison, they both chanted "rock, paper, scissors, shoot," while they bobbed their arms. Patrik stuck out two fingers while Adam kept his hand balled.

Adam returned a smirk of his own. "Suck it."

"I should've known you'd throw rock," Patrik commented blankly. "That's all you know in Katina anyway. It's in your blood. Don't you guys just call it "rock, rock, rock"?"

"Oh ho, that's funny," Adam chortled sarcastically, trying to withhold his laughter. "You should type up all your racist jokes on your tiny tablet."

Patrik just grumbled incoherently and shook his head.

Banter aside, the three trekked the unconventionally difficult way from the lobby to the parking garage. On the key ring he swiped from Todd's apartment, Fox found a parking tag that read "Jared Reimer-McCloud — Floor 4 – Lot 45-C." He shrugged, then instructed his posse to follow.

Omitting pointless detail, Fox finally stepped up to the designated lot and found a relatively small silver compact sedan residing in the spot. Sure enough, the car unlocked when Fox pressed the button on the keyring. He climbed into the front seat while Patrik scurried around the car to steal shotgun. Begrudgingly, Adam filed into the back seat.

As Fox pulled out of the garage and merged into the downtown streets, Patrik rolled down the window and let his elbow hang out.

"I don't understand why he chose both of us to go," Adam blurted out.

The malamute shrugged. "He might want to keep more than just him in line," he pointed a thumb at Fox. "He knows that we aren't all that content."

"I know, but maybe he shouldn't try to do all of this convoluted shit when we could've easily done it ourselves with a bit of extra time."

"He's got a deadline to meet," Patrik commented.

"Doesn't matter if he has a freakin' deadline. If he can't do what he needs to do without going utterly mental and constructing this ludicrous plan, he shouldn't've accepted the job."

"He really didn't have much of a choice in the matter, Kaj. That's his father he's taking the job from, and you know boss has his image he wants to keep with him, and us for that matter."

"Fine. I'll give him that."

"So what's next?" Fox interjected.

"Next for what?" Patrik asked.

"The mission. Surely we didn't waste three chapters messing around at a hockey rink for nothing, right?"

Adam grunted and started looking at his tablet. "Well, your friend Vince needs to clear our names from any identifying agencies so we can fly free without being flagged. As soon as we do that, we have free roam to do whatever dirty work Muzzin has in mind. It's really all up to him."

Fox's face shrunk. "So this is just buildup for the _actual_ mission?"

Patrik chuckled. "You've obviously never worked in our field before. We can't just take a job from a superior officer and just go right into it. There's prep for our work, and lots of it if we want to come away with any sort of profit and not end up in a jail cell."

"But this buildup has already gone past 60K words! How long is this story gonna be?"

"Beats me. It'll be over sooner if you comply though, so I wouldn't try to make the plot more complicated than it already is. That make sense?"

"Yea, yea, whatever," Fox muttered. "I didn't even want this to be easy anyway. Where's the fun in having an easy job? I sure don't see it. It's got be difficult as all hell if it wants to be fun."

Later on in the ride, the group got stuck in traffic. It didn't look like it was gonna move anytime soon based on how many cars there were and how many traffic lights separated them from the hospital a few blocks down the road. To pass the time, Fox sneaked a peek at his "plot/character progression" notecard stuffed in his pocket, then posed the question:

"So what's up with you two and Wolf?"

He looked in his mirror to see Adam, but his gaze seemed to be fixed on Patrik. The malamute grunted, "What about us?"

"What's the affiliation there?" Fox elaborated. "You two seem to work better as a team by yourself."

"That's cuz we were," Patrik replied in that same toneless voice of his. "Kaj and I were—and still are—partners. We partnered up as system architects for various companies; he wrote the code and I built the servers to run the system. He creates, I protect. No different than when we jumped ship to pursue a better deal. Now we're on the opposite side of the bridge, so to say."

"Wolf hired us for that reason," Adam jumped in. "One of the companies we worked for early on, we worked with Leon; Wolf's second pilot. We were deemed trustworthy by his standards and by the word of his teammate, so here we are now."

"Have you ever thought about bailing?" Fox inquired.

Both Patrik and Adam looked at each other. "That's a stretch to say," Adam commented hesitantly.

"His promise of a payday is enticing," Patrik added. "For the work that we're doing compared to what we did before him, and comparing the pay as well, this is the better deal by far. As for working _outside of the law,_ we had already done it before so it was only a matter of time before the CDF caught onto us. Adam modified governmental algorithms—and still is right now, obviously. I was basically Kajær's protection if shit hit the fan, so grouping myself with him just furnished a jail cell with my name on it."

"Now Wolf is letting us use our full potential because of his team safeguarding _us_ —"

"I wouldn't go that far, Kaj," Patrik interrupted. "In case you forgot, we've still been fighting our way around. We had to get our own equipment to set up the infiltration software since Wolf didn't have any, hence why it failed because my severs had to compensate for your shitty, on-the-fly coding. Do I need to remind you of the game last night too?"

"Fair enough," Adam nodded, ignoring his jabs. "I guess we've still been fighting on our own, in a way."

"Wolf hasn't done much to help."

"But I feel bad talking down about him; he did give us this chance at a proper payday," the bird continued.

Patrik shrugged. "True."

"Wolf just… lacks in that true leadership department," said Adam with hesitance. "But that doesn't subtract from the fact that he's a brilliant pilot and tactician."

"He's a great tactician, yes," agreed Patrik. "But his temper is a hindrance when we're talking important business."

"But he is a great businessman," reasoned Adam.

"Okay," Patrik started. "We both have a lot of shit to talk. Do we have to keep prefacing it with all this nice-guy stuff? If so, we're gonna be in this car all day."

"We kinda have to just to offset the shittiness of all the shitty stuff we say behind his back," answered the avian.

"Why don't we just use an acronym?" suggested the canine. "To compress all the nice-guy stuff… Wolf is great, but, y'know… W, I, G, B, Y.

"Wigby?" echoed Adam.

"All the nice-guy stuff," Patrik repeated.

"Okay, wigby," Adam started. "But I think it's weird that he's treating us as expendable resources."

"Wigby," grunted Patrik. "We dropped our guaranteed salary with a halfway-decent firm for him; what's keeping us from going back to that firm and bailing on this shit-storm of an operation? At least we were guaranteed safety, healthcare, insurance, and a goddamn paycheck while working there. Wigby."

"Wigby," echoed Adam again. "Just because he's so set on privacy and security to make sure that our operation doesn't get uncovered doesn't mean he needs to treat us like second-rate employees."

"Wigby; I think he knows that we don't really have an option now that our faces are associated with his team. He's got us leashed like… like Scarlet when she wants a round of fun even with a few cocktails in her system."

"Wigby; now I'm really starting to get pissed off," Adam tried to hush his rising voice. "I mean, we put in so much work for no pay as of now, and now he thinks that he can get away with devaluing our skills? Seriously, fuck him. Fuck that guy… Wigby."

"Wigby."

"You two are unbelievable," Fox grumbled.

"I'm sorry, were we talking to you?" Patrik questioned flatly.

"I kinda asked the question to set you two off on that tangent," reasoned Fox.

* * *

[҉]

* * *

Before they even knew it, they finally cleared the mess of traffic and managed to get into the hospital's parking garage. Fox agreed to wear a tracker just on to offhand chance that he would ditch the team, even though he gave his word that he wouldn't. Nevertheless, with Todd's glasses draped over his eyes and blurring his vision somewhat, Fox made his way through the garage and down to the main lobby of the hospital. It was a long and boring walk, I'll write that much, okay?

He gingerly approached the reception desk, where a young jackal nurse sat behind two monitors and a stack of paperwork. "Can I help you?" she asked with vague disinterest.

"I'm here to visit someone," Fox replied. "James McCloud. I'm his son."

"Can I get a name?"

"Todd."

She looked through one of her computer screens, obnoxiously chewing her gum in the process. "Todd McCloud… he's got you on the clearance list. ICU room 14. Down this hall, take a left at the end, third door on your right."

"Thank you," Fox answered before stumbling around the desk and down the designated hallway. As soon as he wound the corner at the end of the hall, he froze.

Garrick. The CDF officer he fought at the game, evident with the clean white gauze wrapped around the canine's head. He was talking with another officer, a doctor, and a very familiar nurse. Since the doctor and the two officers were busy talking with the nurse just listening, Fox retracted into the hallway, but tapped his knuckles on the wall lightly. She didn't seem to notice. He tried it again, and this time he got a reaction. Her face immediately lit up, and after a quick apology and excuse, she was out of the conversation and rushing down the hall.

Fox backed up to keep out of sight from the others. Seconds later, the nurse wound the corner and instantly hugged him tight. The vixen in the light blue nurses' garb had that same iconic fur color palette; the controversial red/orange/tan primary color matched with the wavy light tan hair that spanned the length of her shoulder blades. Plus, the matching green eyes gave it away that she was Fox's younger sister Paige.

"I'm so glad you could make it, Todd," she said, backing away to part her hair correctly. "Listen, before you ask, I have no idea what happened—"

"Wait, Paige," Fox started, but the vixen didn't listen.

"I'm just as clueless as you right now. Like, I know _what_ happened, but I don't know what _actually_ happened and why and all that—"

"Paige," Fox interrupted, shaking her out of her ramblings. "Sis, I'm not Todd. It's me."

He removed the glasses from his muzzle for a second, then set them back over his eyes. Paige initially looked flabbergasted, but as reality set in, steam began to seep out of her ears.

"What the hell F—"

Fox panicked and clamped her muzzle shut, hissing at her as he looked out of the sides of his glasses. "Keep it down," he commanded, pulling her in behind the wall. "Listen, for right now, I'm not Fox, m'kay? I'm not sacrificing my vision without good reason."

"Why?" she whispered back. Breaking off of him, she continued. "I'm glad to see you and all, but what the hell? What's the issue?"

"I really don't have time to explain right now," Fox insisted.

Paige blew some hair out of her eyes. "Oh no, you're not blowing us off again." She grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down to be eye-to-eye with her. "Talk, Fox."

"I'm not Fox, sis," Fox argued nervously.

"Just talk."

"I'll explain later," Fox replied. "I need to talk to dad, okay? It's my fault I got him in here and I need to—"

"You did this?" she growled.

"Again, it's a very long story that I don't have the time to retell."

Paige huffed and pushed him off. "Fine. I'll get you in. Just… follow my lead."

Fox followed Paige around the corner and all the way up to James' door. Fox cringed when Garrick stopped her before she could open the door.

"Who's this fella? He looks awfully familiar."

"This is my brother, Todd," she said, though with slight hesitance since she knew she was lying to an officer. Fox followed along by nodding, a convincing grin on his face.

Garrick's narrowed eyes returned to normal. "Oh. My apologies, Todd. You and your brother look very much alike. I'm sincerely sorry about what has happened with Fox. He used to be such a reliable asset."

"Oh, uh, it really is," Fox stammered, putting on a slightly higher voice to sell his identity. "I'm disappointed in him too."

"He just came by to see dad," Paige interrupted. "He won't be long."

"Okay, I'll wait out here," the officer nodded.

Paige practically pulled Fox into James' room. He was awake, but his head was wrapped in bandages and his entire body was obscured by a sheet. Paige then shoved him in further, hissing, "Don't take long."

The shutting door caught James attention. The injured fox sighed and let his head fall back.

"Thanks for stopping by."

Fox's ears fell. "Listen, dad, I'm so sorry."

"Sorry for what?" James asked, visibly confused. "I may not be the most coherent thing right now, but I do know enough to know you shouldn't be sorry."

Fox noticed that his words were slurring ever so slightly. Only then did he notice the multiple IV bags surrounding his bed.

James continued, "Are you still not over it? Listen, I told you that I supported your decision ever since you came out, and I supported your wedding and put in that good word for you and Jared to get that nice apartment downtown. You're my kid, Todd; I have to support my kids no matter what direction they take."

Fox froze. "Oh, wait, dad, I'm not—"

"You know, I always thought I was gay for a while," James yammered on, staring at the ceiling. "Well, at least I was, until I saw that little piece of tail known as your mother for the first time. She literally had the looks that could turn any gay guy straight, cuz I was that guy, ya know what I'm sayin'?"

"Dad, it's me," Fox said, removing the glasses from his face. James looked over to see, only for his expression to soften to a more somber inflection.

"Oh," he mumbled. "Hey, Fox."

"Dad, listen—"

"I know what you're gonna say," James interrupted. "I may be high on morphine, but I know, okay?"

Fox's ears fell flat.

"What's up, kiddo?" James asked. "Why were they gunning for you?"

The vulpine sighed. "I made a mistake."

"Clearly."

Fox shook his head. "I took a job from Wolf. I'm working for him, basically."

James took a few moments to process it before saying, "Is that it?"

"I wish I could say it was," Fox muttered.

"I'm not mad," James grunted. "This is your first merc job in a while. I'm just… disappointed that you didn't tell me the truth. Like I said, you're my kid; I have to support my kids no matter what. Even if they are stupid or otherwise disagreeable decisions, I have to support them. I'm more upset about the fact that you lied to me."

"I did," Fox admitted somberly. "And I'm sorry."

"It was all one big lie, wasn't it?"

Fox nodded.

"Can I ask what you actually were there for? Or is that classified?"

"I really don't want to say," he replied.

James sighed. "Fair enough. So… you talking to Scarlet was a lie?"

"We needed her for the mission."

"I see," James' eyes closed. "I'm gonna guess that you and Sheila are just teammates?"

"Right."

"There's nothing there between you two?"

Fox breathed. "It's complicated," he replied.

"That girlfriend persona was a lie too?"

"For the mission, yes," Fox answered. "But… She was just playing the part, I snapped at her… She felt bad, and after we talked it out I…"

"You fell for her, didn't you?"

Fox shrugged. "I guess you're right… but, I thought you were supposed to be high?"

"I am, and believe me, it's helping me make sense of the situation you're in," James started to giggle. "If I was sober, I'd be beating your ass all over this hospital for fucking me up like you did. But right now, I can't be anything other than impressed, because you fooled the shit out of me!"

Fox breathed out of his nose. "I'm stuck though," he admitted, his shoulders drooping. "I really want to just say screw it and bail on the team; go do something else with my time now that I'm here… but Wolf has me by the neck right now, and I really can't leave Sheila behind. She's not cut out for that kind of job, and it hurts to think that she might get punished because of what I did."

"I feel ya," James replied, his voice becoming more and more incoherent. "Listen, here's what I want ya to do. I can tell that you have a little crush on her, a'ight? Shippin' little ol' Fox and SheShe. I get it. But you got yourself into a little bit of a stick pickle and you want outta it."

"Dad?" Fox said distantly.

"Ah, sorry Toddy," he started to chuckle. "I might've hit the dosage button while you were goin' on about your little sob story. My ass hurts, kay? I got shot in the back and fell down a flight of stairs for ya, so ya better 'preciate it."

James shifted a little bit. "M'kay, here's what the little McCloud has to do. You need to take a stance and don't let the big bad Wolf shit all over ya about it. Cuz wolf shit stinks, fam."

Fox smirked to himself. "And about Sheila?"

"Don't take her to bed unless you got a scorching good reason to, my dude," James replied. "She might want a full, unsanctioned access to the hot dog bar, but you gotta lay down your rules so that she doesn't overindulge, ka'peesh?"

"No, dad, I mean—"

"Unless you wanna give her that unlimited pass, f'ya know what I'm sayin'" he winked. "…Yo, your eyebrows are on _fleek_."

"Dad, focus," Fox insisted.

"I'm really high," James giggled, looking up at the ceiling. "I'm in a cloud, bruh."

"Dad, there's no cl—"

"A **_cloud_** , bro," James sputtered.

"…I'm just gonna go—"

"Wait, hold up," James yipped, rolling to his side to face him properly. His arm, numb from the painkillers, limply fell forward and draped over his chest and the side of the bed. He instantly lost his composure and started giggling.

"Dad."

"Bitch, _dab_ ," he choked out before beginning a round of howling laughter. "I crack myself up."

"Feel better soon, dad," Fox said, sliding the glasses back over his eyes again.

"Bye Todd!" he shouted as Fox stepped out of the room. As he adjusted the glasses and began to walk away from the doorway, Paige came up behind him dressed in a deep blue turtleneck sweater and tight black leggings, with a purse draped over her shoulder.

"Okay, I just clocked out," she started. "You better start talking once we get out of here."

"Trust me, I will," Fox replied. "Just… promise me you won't ever put me on the drugs dad is on if I ever get hurt. "

"Why?"

"He's making pop culture references and it makes my head hurt."


End file.
